An international appeal was launched Friday to find a five-year-old boy with a brain tumor who was taken from a British hospital by his parents against the advice of doctors. Ashya King, who was in a wheelchair and needs to be fed through a tube, was taken late Thursday from the hospital in Southampton, England where he had been a long term patient. His parents boarded a ferry to France with Ashya's six siblings, ITV News reported.
Police said the missing boy's health will "deteriorate rapidly" if he is not found and that his condition would become "life-threatening". The parents are Jehovah's Witnesses but police said their religion was “irrelevant” in the case, ITV News reported.