Ranger from the North

The reason they don't want Alfie Evans to go to Italy is *because* the Italian doctors might be able to do something for him. Imagine the shaken faith among Brits in their own doctors' and courts' judgment if, after essentially sentencing a toddler to death, that sentence was shown to have been in error. The boy needs to die because it's crucially important for their judgment to be vindicated.

That's the most haunting element here, the suspicion that they wouldn't let him go to Rome not because they feared for his quality of life but because they feared for their own institutional reputations. Whether he was suffering wasn’t just debatable, it was debated: The president of the hospital in Rome that was willing to accept him stated that "a positive outcome would be difficult, but the baby’s suffering can be alleviated." If that were true, though — in particular, if the Italian doctors had improved his quality of life — his doctors in Britain would have been lambasted for having tried to condemn him unnecessarily. The question would inevitably be asked whether British medicine in its entirety has been too quick to give up in other debatable end-of-life cases. Faith in its judgment would be badly shaken.