It sounds to me as though they were very desperate people who were prepared to explore any avenue in an attempt to save a child they loved very dearly.

Unless you're in that position, it's impossible to know how you would be affected, or how you would deal with it, and who are we to criticise those people?

They were paying for their child to be given treatment in the hope that he or she could be cured, and in circumstances that the vast majority of us have never had to face. It's a disgusting insult to refer to the child as a 'lab-rat', you should be ashamed of yourself.