Young British brain tumour survivor Ashya King has been reunited with his parents after they were released from a Madrid jail.

Ashya King, 5, has been reunited with his parents after they were released from a Madrid jail on Wednesday.

Ashya, who recently had a severe brain tumour removed, has been at the centre of an international police investigation after his parents took him from a British hospital against doctors’ advice. Brett and Naghemeh King were concerned that he was receiving inadequate care in the UK and wanted him to receive proton beam treatment abroad. Mr. and Mrs. King were imprisoned in Madrid for 72 hours after British police issued a European Arrest Warrant. Charges of ‘child cruelty’ were dropped on Tuesday.

Criticism has been levelled at British authorities for their ‘heavy-handed’ approach. In Question Time British PM David Cameron said that the police decision to issue the warrant “didn’t chime with common sense”. A Downing Street spokesperson said that the Home Office is expected to launch an enquiry into the police response. 

“Common sense” prevails in the Ashya King saga
Xavier Symons
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Creative commons
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Xavier Symons

Xavier Symons is a bioethicist and scholar in residence at the Kennedy Institute for Ethics at Georgetown University.

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