What the heck is going on in Canada…oh wait it’s the same thing going on right here in the United States. This is a truly horrifying story from LifeSiteNews.com. This is a death panel. Up and running right now. In fifth gear. So all you folks who giggled when we warned against death panels, well here they are:
One-year-old Joseph Maraachli of Windsor, Ontario will have his life support removed Monday at 10 am. after the Ontario Superior Court today rejected an appeal by the parents to bring him home where he can die under their care.
A leading anti-euthanasia advocate says the decision facilitates a system where doctors are authorized to force life and death decisions on patients, warning that this is, in fact, far worse than the “death panels” recently debated in the U.S. as part of the federal health care law.
“Monday at 10 am they will kill my baby,” Moe Maraachli, Joseph’s father, told LifeSiteNews shortly after the ruling. “There’s no more humanity. There’s no more chance. I’ve tried everything for him. No more appeals, nothing.”
“I asked them: why not send him to Windsor and let him die at home?” he continued. “They said they will give him injection, but I don’t want to.”
“I ask God, and maybe he breathe,” he added.
I can’t even imagine what these parents are going through. These people want a tracheotomy done so they can care for the child at home but the hospital’s saying the surgery is too risky so instead they’ll just remove life support and let him die. Soooooo…what happens if the tracheotomy fails? He might die. So to avoid the possibility of death the hospital is going to ensure death.
February 17, 2011 at 11:09 pm
This is an untold stupidity. I do not know how to define this. Oh, Hail Mary, pray for us.
February 17, 2011 at 11:09 pm
so sad…hospice would be the humane and loving thing to do…on the other hand, my husband (hospital chaplain) has had to deal with adult children demanding that their 87-year old parent continue heroic measures (yes, yes- who decides? But have you ever seen an 87-year old's chest get cracked open to do I-don't-know-what to the heart?)
February 17, 2011 at 11:28 pm
Prayers for the family and for the baby!
Does anyone have more information on this? The Lifesite news article quoting Superior Court Justice Helen Rady said the baby was in a "permanent (sic) vegetative state," but also said that the baby did not have "brainstem reflexes"
Patients with PVS do have brainstem reflexes. Is this not PVS?
Moreover, respiratory drive is a brainstem reflex. If the baby does not have a respiratory drive, a tracheostomy alone will not help unless they were planning to artificially ventilate at home.
These cases are complex and it would be helpful to have accurate medical information.
February 18, 2011 at 12:09 am
You know what would be a good idea?
Hire an ambulance team and an emergency doctor. Get the kid stabilized again. Drive to the airport. Fly to the US. Get the kid in a US hospital or nursing home.
February 18, 2011 at 12:19 am
Here we have parents who want to take their child home and care for him. In Florida parents wanted to take home their adult daughter and care for her. Courts in both cases ruling against the parents, and of course the patient had no say. In one case a hospital is bound to kill the child, because his life is not worth their time. In the other the ex husband wants to kill the woman to save her from a "worthless life". We need to stop others from determining our worthiness to life.
February 18, 2011 at 2:50 am
Heartbreaking….
February 18, 2011 at 12:30 pm
People used to die at home all the time. It is normal and natural, albeit painful for the family to watch. But it's the parents' call. Joseph is their son. Nobody loves him as they do. Nobody should claim the responsibility for his care but them.
And who knows? God could do a miracle.
February 18, 2011 at 6:59 pm
@renaissanceguy: A person's civil and unalienable rights are held in trust for him by God, by his parents and finally by the state, in that order. The state has overreached its power. The state is constituted by the sovereign personhood of each and every person who constitutes the state. The state must recognize and acknowledge this sovereign personhood of each and every citizen to be a legitimate entity.