“It is good that the Patriarchate has joined this process, which I hope will also help depoliticize the issue,” Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said in response to a question about children with Duchenne syndrome.

According to the head of government, when excessive political elements enter the discussion, it becomes more difficult to make rational decisions and emotions tend to dominate.

“It is very good that the Patriarchate has joined this process, which I hope will help depoliticize the issue as well, because where excessive political elements enter, it becomes more difficult to make rational decisions and emotions tend to prevail. This is an issue where you cannot blame people making demands for being emotional. It is impossible to blame a parent for excessive emotion when discussing such matters.

It is important that we continue rational discussion on this issue. Everything must be considered comprehensively. There was an issue that the government resolved in a specific way, but since then the state has spent around 30 million on something that does not produce tangible results. Since the government wanted to find an easy solution and avoid additional PR pressure, such a decision was made, and it cost taxpayers 30 million GEL. If it had tangible results, the state would have spent not only 30 million, but perhaps 300 million or more. The main thing is that a rational decision is made regarding all of this.

I hope healthy discussion on this topic continues. We are ready to discuss the matter with the Patriarchate as well. The Ministry of Health will be fully involved in the discussions. This is one of the ways to reach a rational decision.

I would also ask society to study this issue as deeply as possible. The simple message is that a child needs medicine and therefore we should provide medicine. But as soon as I asked a specific person whether they knew if a particular medication leads to recovery, prolongation of life, delay in the need for a wheelchair, and so on, they had no answer to any of these questions.

Therefore, I call on everyone to look deeper into this issue. Maybe we are wrong, maybe we are not, but when a citizen expresses a position, my request would be for them to first study every detail connected to this decision. Only through such in-depth discussion can we all together make rational decisions.

This is an issue where no one can be completely free of emotion, and where even excessive emotion may be justified, but overall we must all manage to arrive at a rational final decision,” the Prime Minister said on Imedi TV.