THE parents of Charlie Guard, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, ended their legal fight over treatment for their 11-month-old baby, who has a rare genetic condition that causes progressive brain damage and muscle weakness, on Monday.

Charlie has now been baptised; his parents posted photos on social-media sites of him clutching a pendant of St Jude, the Catholic figure most often associated with hospitals and medical care. They “trust that soon” he “will be in the hands of his loving God and saviour”, a Presbyterian minister and human-rights activist working with them is reported to have said.

The couple had wanted to take their son to the United States to receive experimental treatment, but British courts sided with doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital who were overseeing his care, who said that it would only prolong his suffering.

“Had Charlie been given the treatment sooner, he would have had the potential to be a normal, healthy little boy,” Mr Yates said on Monday.

Paul Vallely