Dear sweet baby Charlie,

By the time this is published, you may no longer be alive on this earth. According to your doctors, you haven't been alive for months, but a beating heart (medically supported or not) is a life, so I believe that you have most certainly been alive.

Few knew you personally, but millions knew OF you and fought hard for your right to live. We signed petitions, read countless news articles, and looked at your adorable pictures over and over. Your story was everywhere: newspapers, Twitter, Facebook, blogs. Of the countless babies born worldwide each year, you entered the world with little drama and a whole lot of love. However, the legal battle fought to save you has brought your life into the spotlight and given us something real to fight for other than rainbow parades and welfare checks.

You couldn't help the fact that you were born with health issues that have no real proven cure. "Mitochondrial DNA Depletion Syndrome" - I know nothing about it other than it is what will end your life and break your parents' hearts.

I want you to know that this rare genetic disease wasn't the only thing that ended your precious life. Your doctors killed you. Your hospital killed you. The courts killed you. Charlie, over one million dollars was raised to bring you to the United States for a potentially healing treatment, but your doctors said no, and the law was set. Oh how we would have welcomed you into our country and our hospitals in an attempt to treat your fatal disease. But you weren't even given a chance, and the two people who loved you more than anyone else in this cruel world couldn't have a voice, a final say.

And so, you will leave this earth after only 11 short months of arriving, but you won't leave without an impact. Your parents' battle for your life has opened the eyes of people of all ages and backgrounds across the world. For a world so divided, it brought me joy to watch us come together in the united opinion that you deserve a chance. Your parents brought you into this world, and they had every right to provide hope for you and your future. The government in the UK is changing. It's becoming more restrictive and forceful on parental decisions for a child's health. This was only more evident through your fight.

Rest in peace, baby boy. The fight for parent and child rights doesn't stop just because your life is over. If anything, the war will be fought even harder because of you and the future you could have had, had you been given a second chance.