NY family opposes end to care for brain-dead boy they haven't visited since July

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.

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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.

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"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.

Motl's mother and father, Eluzer and Miriam Brody, haven't been to the hospital since July. The medical center says its requests to speak directly with them have been rebuffed, and in recent days, hospital employees "have been inundated with harassing and threatening calls" regarding the case.


People like that just make me sick.