Charlie Gard's parents await decision from European Court of Human Rights

A couple who want to take their terminally ill baby son to the United States for treatment are waiting to see whether judges in the European Court of Human Rights will offer help after exhausting all UK legal options.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, want 10-month-old Charlie Gard, who suffers from a rare genetic condition and has brain damage, to undergo a therapy trial in America.

The have asked European Court judges in Strasbourg, France, to consider the case.

Strasbourg judges are expected to make an announcement on Tuesday.

They have told doctors in London to continue providing life-support treatment to Charlie until midnight on Tuesday to give them time to examine papers filed by his parents' lawyers.

Specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where Charlie is being cared for, say therapy proposed by a doctor in America is experimental and will not help.

They say life support treatment should stop.

A High Court judge in April ruled against a trip to America and in favour of Great Ormond Street doctors.

Mr Justice Francis concluded that life support treatment should end and said Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity.

Three Court of Appeal judges upheld that ruling in May and three Supreme Court justices on Thursday dismissed a further challenge by the couple.

Mr Justice Francis had made a ruling after a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

He heard that Charlie, who was born on August 4 last year, had a form of mitochondrial disease, a condition which causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage.

Specialists in the US have offered a therapy called nucleoside.

Lawyers representing Charlie's parents say parents should be free to make decisions about their children's treatment unless any proposed treatment poses a risk of significant harm.