Charlie Gard Latest News: Parents Get 48 Hours Deadline To Give 'Powerful Evidence' On Experimental Treatment

Charlie Gard's parents received 48 hours to submit "new and powerful evidence" demonstrating that their 11-month-old son, who is suffering from a rare genetic disorder, should be kept alive to receive experimental treatment. The deadline was announced Monday by British judge Nicholas Francis ahead of a second hearing planned for Thursday afternoon at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

The judge asked the parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, to produce the evidence — about the effectiveness of the experimental treatment that could help their son — by Wednesday 2 p.m. local time (9 a.m. EDT). Along with the evidence, they must also include the details about when the report backing the evidence was published and "when it became available to them.”

Read: Charlie Gard’s Mother Yells At Hospital To ‘Start Telling The Truth’ About Terminally Ill Baby

“I have to decide this case not on the basis of tweets, not on the basis of what might be said in the press, or to the press," Judge Francis said, acknowledging public interest surrounding the case. The case gained spotlight after President Donald Trump and Pope Francis offered help to the baby.

"There is not a person alive who would not want to save Charlie," Judge Francis said, according to reports. "If there is new evidence, I will hear it. If you bring new evidence to me and I consider that evidence changes the situation … I will be the first to welcome that outcome."

The terminally ill British infant's parents have been fighting to take the baby to the U.S. for experimental treatment, but the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where the child is admitted, refused to release him. After the hospital's refusal, the parents filed a case in the European Court of Human Rights that ruled June 27 the boy could not be taken to the U.S. and should be removed from life support.

On Sunday, the couple delivered a petition to the hospital that garnered more than 350,000 signatures. “There are now seven doctors supporting us from all over the world — from Italy, from America, from England as well,” Yates said Sunday when she arrived at the hospital. “They think that [experimental treatment] has a chance, you know, up to 10 percent chance of working for Charlie and we feel that’s a chance worth taking.”

Last week, a Vatican hospital also offered to treat Charlie, who is having a mitochondrial depletion syndrome — a disease that has rendered him unable to eat, breathe or move his limbs on his own. However, this request was also rejected by the London hospital, citing legal obligations in the case.

Read: What's Next For Terminally Ill 11-Month Old Set To Die?

The Vatican hospital President Mariella Enoc said last week in a statement to the Washington Post that doctors at the hospital in Rome, who study rare diseases are in contact with international experts, including in the U.S., “to develop a protocol for experimental treatment for Charlie.”

“If we're willing to execute the Supreme Court ruling, the English hospital could accept Charlie's transfer to Rome. But the Bambino Gesù Childrens Hospital cannot consider this opportunity,” Enoc said.