Grant Woodward: What parent wouldn’t do anything to save a child?

Days after Theresa May ratcheted up the UK terror threat level from “serious” to “severe”, you could be forgiven for thinking that this massive international operation cranked into gear to capture a jihadist intent on blowing up half the western world. In fact, it was to entrap a mother and father fighting desperately to save the life of their little boy.

The tragic story of five-year-old Aysha King raises no end of questions. But first and foremost it speaks of a hopelessly muddled world. One in which David Cameron tells the country he is thinking about trying to ban British Islamic State fighters from returning to our shores to spread their violence and hatred here, while at the same time parents trying to secure alternative treatment for their critically-ill son are being chased by every police force in Europe.

Aside from incredulity at the scale of the operation to find Brett and Naghemeh King and the hysteria triggered by their actions, the overriding emotion is one of sheer, unbridled pity for this couple and their plight.

There are contradictory reports about their son’s prognosis, but it has been said that he could have just four months to live due to the aggressive brain tumour first diagnosed in July. It is every parent’s worst nightmare. And how many parents can say with any certainty how they would react?

Initially, you would no doubt place your faith in the NHS. But what if the treatment they prescribed didn’t seem to be working, and you were forced to watch your child’s life ebbing away? What would you do then? Wouldn’t you too be scouring the internet for an alternative form of treatment that might have more success? Wouldn’t you be willing to try absolutely anything if it presented even the slimmest glimmer of hope?

Aysha King’s parents clearly were. Having researched proton beam therapy, they say they “pleaded” with staff at Southampton General Hospital for their son to be given it but were refused. The technology is currently only available in the UK to treat eye cancers, but patients with other forms of the disease can apply for NHS funding for therapy abroad.

From 2018, the treatment will be offered to up to 1,500 cancer patients at hospitals in London and Manchester, but that will be too late for Aysha. Families of patients who have not received NHS funding have often been left having to raise thousands of pounds to pay for the treatment themselves, which is why Brett and Naghemeh King were trying to sell their home as they fled to Spain. And wouldn’t you be willing to sacrifice everything you own if it gave your child a better chance of survival?

The waters have been muddied somewhat by the fact that the couple are Jehovah’s Witnesses, with speculation that they may have taken their son from the hospital to prevent him receiving a blood transfusion that would have run contrary to their beliefs.

Leaving aside such conjecture, there is a very human debate to be had here – one that cuts to the heart of the Kings’ dilemma and that facing any parent whose child’s life is in danger.

NHS guidelines say that in such circumstances, the doctor has the right to do whatever is needed to save the child’s life. If a parent or guardian fails to provide medical help for a child, or unreasonably refuses to allow treatment, they can be prosecuted for neglect – which is what could now happen to Brett and Naghemeh King. As if the heartbreak of potentially losing their son wasn’t enough, they find themselves being treated as criminals and barred from seeing him as he languishes under police guard in a Spanish hospital.

This case raises profound questions about who should have the ultimate authority when it comes to deciding what is best for a patient and whether parents have the right to search for what they believe is a better treatment.

Some years ago, Michaela and Augusto Odone battled the medical establishment to find an alternative treatment for their young son Lorenzo’s rare condition, ALD (adrenoleukodistrophy). Their campaigning eventually bought Lorenzo many more years of life and their story was turned into a book and then an Oscar-nominated film.

It gave an insight to the moral and ethical maze at work in such instances. As with Lorenzo’s case, the tragedy now engulfing the King family throws up some deeply challenging questions that have been lost amid the shabby, sensationalised coverage of Aysha’s story.

To condemn Brett and Naghemeh King for their desperate actions is to ignore the truth at the heart of this story. That every parent worth their salt would go to the ends of the earth if it meant saving their child’s life.

Grant Woodward