Freckelton Ian
Barrister, Crockett Chambers, Melbourne, Australia.
Professorial Fellow in Law and Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia.
J Law Med. 2018 Jul;25(4):899-918.
The end-of-life litigation involving Alfie Evans (9 May 2016 - 28 April 2018) from Liverpool, England, who suffered from an incurable and degenerative neurological condition was extraordinary. It emerged in the shadow of comparable but not as extensive litigation enabled by crowdfunding in relation to Ashya King and Charlie Gard. Although Alfie's parents lost repeatedly in the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of England, as well as before the European Court of Human Rights, they persisted in bringing more legal challenges. The public relations campaign on their behalf at times was threatening and accusatory of the clinicians and of Alder Hey Hospital. Both persons employed at the Christian Legal Centre, which represented the parents at times, and medical practitioners from Europe who participated in forensic assessments behaved unethically. There are many lessons to be learned from the Alfie Evans saga. If we are to maintain morale and commitment among those who provide paediatric clinical services to the very ill and the dying, they must be protected from the public relations and litigation campaigns deployed by those purporting to represent the Alfie Evans family, and better non-adversarial methods need to be constructed as a matter of urgency to resolve matters involving disagreements about the treatment of terminally ill children.
涉及来自英国利物浦的阿尔菲·埃文斯（2016年5月9日 - 2018年4月28日）的临终诉讼非常特殊。他患有无法治愈且不断恶化的神经系统疾病。该诉讼出现在由众筹推动的、与阿希亚·金和查理·加德相关的类似但规模没那么大的诉讼阴影之下。尽管阿尔菲的父母在英国高等法院、上诉法院、最高法院以及欧洲人权法院多次败诉，但他们仍不断提出更多法律挑战。代表其父母的公关活动有时带有威胁性，并指责临床医生和奥尔德希儿童医院。有时代表父母的基督教法律中心的工作人员以及参与法医评估的欧洲医生的行为都不道德。从阿尔菲·埃文斯事件中可以吸取很多教训。如果我们要保持为重病和临终儿童提供儿科临床服务的人员的士气和奉献精神，就必须保护他们免受那些声称代表阿尔菲·埃文斯家族所开展的公关和诉讼活动的影响，并且迫切需要构建更好的非对抗性方法来解决涉及绝症儿童治疗分歧的问题。
