NEW YORK – A Washington hospital has asked a judge for permission stop treating a brain-dead 12-year-old cancer patient, even though his ultra-religious New York parents want to keep him on life support.
Motl Brody of Brooklyn was pronounced dead this week after a half-year fight against a brain tumor, and doctors at Children's National Medical Center in Washington say the seventh-grader's brain has ceased functioning entirely.
But for the past few days, a machine has continued to inflate and deflate his lungs. As of late Friday afternoon, his heart was still beating with the help of a cocktail of intravenous drugs and adrenaline.
That heartbeat has prompted Motl's parents, who are Orthodox Jews, to refuse the hospital's request to remove all artificial life support.
Under some interpretations of Jewish religious law, including the one accepted by the family's Hasidic sect, death occurs only when the heart and lungs stop functioning.
That means Motl "is alive, and his family has a religious obligation to secure all necessary and appropriate medical treatment to keep him alive," the family's attorney wrote in a court filing this week.
The family has asked the hospital to leave the breathing machine on and keep administering drugs until the boy's heart and lungs no longer respond.
Disagreements between families and medical providers over when to end care for terminally ill patients are common, experts say, but this case wound up in court with unusual speed.
Unlike Terri Schiavo or Karen Ann Quinlan, who became the subjects of right-to-die battles when they suffered brain damage and became unconscious, Motl's condition has deteriorated beyond a persistent vegetative state, his physicians say. His brain has died entirely, according to an affidavit filed by one of his doctors.
His eyes are fixed and dilated. His body neither moves nor responds to stimulation. His brain stem shows no electrical function, and his brain tissue has begun to decompose.
"This is death at its simplest," the hospital's lawyers wrote in a court filing.
The hospital said it would help the family move what it called the boy's "earthly remains" to another medical facility, but has found none willing to accept a brain-dead child.
The dispute wound up in court Sunday, when the family asked a federal judge to block the hospital from doing any further tests for brain activity.
The hospital responded by asking a District of Columbia Superior Court judge for permission to discontinue treatment.
Jeffrey I. Zuckerman, the attorney for Motl's parents, says they have been "utterly shattered" by the hospital's actions.
He stressed that the family's demand for continued life support was based on their obligations under religious law, not an unrealistic hope that their boy will recover.
"You can always hope for a miracle, but if you are asking if they are in denial about their child's medical condition, no, they are not," Zuckerman said.
A hearing was scheduled for Monday, but Children's National Medical Center said it would ask for a postponement until Wednesday.
"We respect the family's beliefs, and have tried since the patient's arrival in June to work closely with them in a spirit of mutual respect," the hospital said in a written statement.
It added, however, that attempts to discuss end-of-life issues with the family had been complicated. Continue >>
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A death in the family is always sad, especially when it is a child. Still the child is gone and they should let him go.
It is odd that some religious people refuse any kind of medical treatment expecting God to heal them, yet others will use medical technology to extend the life of someone who is already gone in order to preserve the life.
If his brain tissue is decomposing, I think it would be rational and dignified to close this sad case. To keep this boy cooped up on a heavy cocktail of drugs just to keep his heart and lungs working is not a dignified, nor respectful, way to let nature take its course. I do not believe in euthanasia, but this case is beyond that. Sad, but necessary in order to begin the long struggle of acceptance and closure.
I don't understand when it became legal for the hospital to make a legal decsion concerning the medical care of a patient, especially a minor who's parents are there to make the decision. Regardless of which side you are own regarding the care of people who are brain dead, it is a dangerous precedent to allow the hospital to decide the "correct" treatment of any patient. It would be different if it were a life threatening situation where no family and/or guardian could be around to get consent, but this is clearly not the case.
It seems to me that the hospital is trying to prepare the bed for the next patient.
Whatever could be done was done and it's time to move on and fill this bed with someone else.
The parents, however, believe that until the heart and lungs are finished, God has not taken the life of their son. This means there may be hope.
If the parents are blessed enough to cover the costs of this continued treatment based upon this principle, then so be it.
I don't see how this compares to the other cases mentioned in this article.
I pray that this doesn't turn into another big political Terri Schiavo fiasco with conservative and liberal vultures descending on the family in their grief.
It is a sad thing for sure. Ultimately, if there is no brain activity then there their son is already gone. Pray for this family for sure.