A doctor treating Alfie told reporters off the record his parents can't take Alfie home to die unless there is a 'sea change' in their attitude.

A British doctor treating Alfie Evans told reporters off the record his parents won’t be allowed to take their child out of the hospital, even to die at home, unless there is a “sea change” in their attitude.

Alfie’s parents are battling the hospital and the government of the United Kingdom to continue caring for their little boy, who is suffering from an undiagnosed condition that British doctors say has rendered him terminally ill. Although he was taken off life support Monday night, Alfie has continued to live with the help of an oxygen tank. The courts have ruled his parents cannot take him out of the country, and have allowed the hospital to keep Alfie in their “care” by force.

A report from The Telegraph indicates the hospital staff is not interested in what’s best for Alfie, so much as proving a point to the parents, who have an “attitude” they don’t like. Here’s the revealing bit, buried in the Telegraph report:

Instead, the judge said the best Alfie’s parents could hope for was to “explore” the options of removing him from intensive care either to a ward, a hospice or his home. But a doctor treating Alfie, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that for Alfie to be allowed home would require a “sea change” in attitude from the child’s family, and they feared that in the “worst case” they would try to take the boy abroad.

In sum: The doctors have determined Alfie must die, and he must die in the hospital, unless the parents change their attitude.

The parents have pulled out all the stops in order to fight to continue protecting and caring for their child. Alfie was granted Italian citizenship Monday after Pope Francis intervened on his behalf, so that he could be transferred to a hospital in Rome.

Alfie’s father, Tom Evans, had flown to Rome to personally appeal to Pope Francis on his son’s behalf. “Your holiness, save our son,” he told the Pope. But the intervention wasn’t enough — a British court ruled he cannot be moved out of the country. Evans and his wife, Kate, are expected to meet with doctors Thursday to discuss whether they might be permitted to bring him home.