US Conservatives Have Jumped On The Alfie Evans Case And Facebook Is Fueling It

Since being diagnosed with a rare degenerative neurological condition in December 2016, Alfie has been at the center of a heartbreaking and complex legal dispute between his parents and doctors over his care.

This week, the case entered its final stages. On Monday, Alfie’s life support was removed following a court ruling in February that backed the decision by doctors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital that it would not be in Alfie’s best interests to continue treatment.

On Tuesday, Alfie’s parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, lost a last-ditch appeal to allow the child to be moved to a hospital in Italy connected to the Vatican, which they say has agreed to continue to treat him. A High Court judge ruled that the family could not take Alfie abroad and that what would serve his best interests would be to remove him from intensive care to a regular ward, a hospice, or his home.

Despite the judge saying that the ruling represented the "final chapter" of the case, the family is due back in court on Wednesday for another appeal.

Evans and James had sought permission to move Alfie to Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome, where he would receive treatment. They lost cases in England’s High Court, Court of Appeal, and Supreme Court, as well as the European Court of Human Rights. Doctors argue that there is no sign of Evans getting better, and any continued treatment in the UK or Italy would be "inhumane" and "futile."

Evans has been regularly updating his personal Facebook profile for the last year. His posts are being shared thousands of times.

BuzzFeed News has contacted him for comment.

Members of the group post multiple times a day and coordinate most of the Alfie Evans-related content on Facebook. BuzzFeed News has reached out to the adminstrators of the group for comment.

The group has spearheaded multiple crowdfunding campaigns. They include a change.org petition of the UK parliament that has over 340,000 signatures, and a JustGiving donation page that has raised over £100,000.

"The first changes you'll see will be in News Feed, where you can expect to see more from your friends, family and groups," Zuckerberg wrote.

Facebook's push toward "meaningful" Facebook groups has also inspired a rash of new issues, including a sudden uptick in misinformation, harassment, and radicalization. BuzzFeed News has reached out to Facebook for comment.

According to data provided by Buzzsumo, in the last month, articles about Alfie Evans are being shared on Facebook by thousands of people. The share rates in some cases have almost quadrupled when compared with totals recorded from August to December of 2017.

"This is what happens when the government gets in complete control of the health care system," Huckabee said.

"I have been working with the Evans family for nearly two months before the media took an interest and the letter you saw were those I sent to the Secretary of State who has failed to respond," Woofle told BuzzFeed News. "None of the Evans' constituent MPs wish to help and it took us a long time to garner any interest in his case."

Charlie's parents and the staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London disagreed over whether to proceed with experimental treatment following a number of seizures in January 2017. After a lengthy court battle, Charlie's parents eventually agreed to transfer him to a hospice and have medical ventilation withdrawn. Charlie died the following day.

His story similarly became a massive rallying point for religious fundamentalists and far-right pundits who believed it was an example of government overreach. Charlie Gard's story was even noticed by President Trump, who offered to help the child.