NOTTINGHAM (OSV News): Indi Gregory, a British girl whose parents battled the British courts to have her life support extended, died at 1:45am UK time on November 13.
In a statement, her father, Dean Gregory, said he and his wife, Claire, “are angry, heartbroken and ashamed. The NHS [National Health Service] and the Courts not only took away her chance to live a longer life, but they also took away Indi’s dignity to pass away in the family home where she belonged.”
Jacopo Coghe, spokesperson for Italian pro-life foundation, Pro Vita Famiglia, shared the father’s words on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“They did succeed in taking Indi’s body and dignity, but they can never take her soul,” Gregory said. “They tried to get rid of Indi without anybody knowing, but we made sure she would be remembered forever.”
He said, “I knew she was special from the day she was born,” adding that his wife “held her for her final breaths.”
Indi, who was eight-months-old, suffered from a rare metabolic disorder known as mitochondrial disease, and her family was fighting a court order that she be removed from life support, as was the case of several other children in the past, including Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard.
The NHS [National Health Service] and the Courts not only took away her chance to live a longer life, but they also took away Indi’s dignity to pass away in the family home where she belonged
Dean Gregory
Indi, was transferred from the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham to a hospice on November 11, according to a November 12 statement issued by Christian Concern, an advocacy group helping the family. The statement confirmed the infant’s life support was removed as per the November 10 ruling from the Court of Appeal.
Justices Peter Jackson, Eleanor King and Andrew Moylan refused the family permission to appeal a ruling that said Indi’s life support could not be removed at home. Instead they ordered that Indi’s life support be removed immediately.
According to Christian Concern, Indi was transferred from the hospital to an ambulance with a security escort and police were present outside of the hospital. She was then transferred to a hospice without incident and was relaxed and slept during the journey, the group said.
At the hospice her life support was removed. At some point she stopped breathing during the night between November 11 and 12, but then recovered.
Pope Francis embraces the family of little Indi Gregory, her father and mother, prays for them and for her
“She is fighting hard,” her father said at that point.
Prior to being moved to the hospice, Indi was granted Italian citizenship on November 9 with prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, personally engaged in the state’s wish to bring the little girl to Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital in Rome for further treatment. She wrote the UK’s lord chancellor and secretary of state for Justice, Alex Chalk, calling for the two countries to officially collaborate on facilitating Indi’s transfer to Rome under the Hague Convention.
However, on the evening of November 10, some of the most senior judges in the UK ruled that the Italian intervention was “wholly misconceived” and “not in the spirit of the convention.”
The Bambino Gesù Paediatric Hospital had agreed to accept Indi for treatment and to carry out the right ventricular outflow tract stent procedure that was put forward by medical experts. The Italian government had offered to fund the treatment at no cost to the NHS or UK taxpayers.
The Vatican released a statement on November 11 saying that: “Pope Francis embraces the family of little Indi Gregory, her father and mother, prays for them and for her, and turns his thoughts to all the children around the world in these same hours who are living in pain or risking their lives because of disease and war.”
The UK government has continued to refuse to comment on the case.
