Alfie Evans: Parents failed in bid to move him to hospital abroad

The parents of 23-month-old Alfie Evans, who has been at the centre of a life-support treatment battle, have lost their latest legal fight after failing to persuade appeal court judges to allow the youngster to be moved to a foreign hospital.

Lawyers for Tom Evans, 21, and Kate James, 20,have been asking Court of Appeal judges permission to transfer their son to Rome,

The couple, have already lost fights in the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.

In February, Mr Justice Hayden ruled that doctors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool could stop treating Alfie against the wishes of his parents following hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London and Liverpool.

Specialists at Alder Hey said life-support treatment should stop and Mr Justice Hayden said he accepted medical evidence which showed that further treatment was futile.

Court of Appeal judges upheld his ruling.

Supreme Court justices and European Court of Human Rights judges have refused to intervene.

Last week, Mr Justice Hayden endorsed a detailed plan put forward by Alder Hey doctors for withdrawing life-support treatment - after considering a number of issues at a follow-up High Court hearing.

The judge said detail of that plan could not be revealed because Alfie was entitled to privacy at the end of his life.

Bosses at a group which fights for Christians' rights, the Christian Legal Centre, are helping Alfie's parents.

They say lawyers will ask appeal court judges to overturn at least one decision made by Mr Justice Hayden last week.

Alfie's parents last week said their son had improved in recent weeks and they had asked Mr Justice Hayden to allow a new assessment, however he had refused.

Mr Hayden said the unanimous view of medical experts was that Alfie's brain had been eroded by disease and further assessment was pointless.

They also suggested that Alfie was being unlawfully detained at Alder Hey, but the judge also dismissed that suggestion.

Appeal court officials said an appeal court judge had decided that Alfie should continue to receive treatment pending the outcome of the latest hearing.

Judges have heard that Alfie, born on May 9 2016, is in a "semi-vegetative state'' and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors had not definitively diagnosed.

Alfie's parents have complained that "the State'' is wrongly interfering with their parental choice.

They want to move Alfie to a hospital in Rome or Germany