Culture of Death Seeks Another Young Victim in the U.K.

LONDON, England, July 16, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – The parents of a little girl who suffered a sudden stroke are now fighting for her life — against doctors who wish to remove her from life support and let her die. 

Tafida Raqeeb, 5, is lying in London’s King’s College Hospital, having suffered a sudden and rare rupture in her brain in February. A brain stem test has shown that she is not dead. Her doctors, however, who are convinced that she will never recover from her minimally conscious state, wish to remove her from a ventilator, thus bringing about her death.

Today, the doctors’ legal representatives went to court to do so.

Tafida’s mother, Shelina Begum, 39, told LifeSiteNews that neither she nor her husband, Mohammad Raqueeb, 45, want this to happen. Believing the little girl is recovering, they have found a hospital that is willing to treat their little girl, the Gaslini Pediatric Hospital in Genoa, and want to take her there. 

However, in a situation reminiscent of the Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard cases, Tafida’s London doctors believe it is in her best interests to die. 

Video released by the parents show Tafida interacting with an electric globe strobing out different colors. She tracks it with her eyes, blinks, and at one point is helped to hold onto it. 

Today, the Daily Mail reported that the “legal battle” between the girl’s parents and hospital had just begun in the Family Division of the High Court. 

This is not the first time Tafida’s doctors have been willing to err on the side of death, Shelina Begum told LifeSiteNews in an emailed statement. The mother of two said surgeons did not operate on her child until five hours after the then-four-year-old suffered the stroke and afterward the girl’s medical team repeatedly suggested “end of life” to the distraught parents.

Tafida’s parents were not so quick to despair of their daughter recovering to some extent, and eventually it seemed that the doctors mirrored their hope. 

“We started to notice Tafida make little progress, such as opening (her) eyes and (the) movement of limbs. Her stats had also been stable for a long period of time,” Begum said. 

“In April, we were transferred to Royal London Hospital with confirmation that Tafida will have a tracheostomy. We were even told that we may be able to go home after a few months and her recovery could continue at home.”

However, the doctors changed their minds after attempts to remove the little girl’s ventilator made her condition worse. Tafida was discovered to have hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and underwent two surgeries to resolve it. Then the doctors dropped the bomb on her parents: they indicated they no longer wished to treat the little girl.

Continue reading here.

(Editor’s Note: This article was originally published at Life Site News. Title changed by P&P.)