Update on Baby Joseph

The good news, the hospital says it will let the parents take Baby Joseph home. BUT. . .

The hospital still refuse to perform the tracheostomy that allowed a sibling of Joseph’s who had a similar condition to live another six months at home. Instead theysaid that they will simply return Joseph home. At that time they will remove his ventilator. If they do so without the tracheostomy, he will almost certainly die within a matter of minutes.

To justify their actions the hospital released the following: “Medical, legal and ethical decisions in this case were made in the best interests of Baby Joseph and are supported by Ontario’s Consent and Capacity Board, the lawyer for Baby Joseph appointed by the Board, Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice and other medical experts from outside institutions.”

However, a medical expert with nearly five decades of experience, Dr. Paul Byrne, an Ohio neonatologist & former president of the Catholic Medical Association, disagrees. “They need to do a tracheostomy. If the baby is stable otherwise, and has a tracheostomy, then the baby can be taken care of at home. Assuming doctors can do something to support the vital activities, we ought to do them. And a tracheostomy ought to be done, and the baby ought to continue on the ventilator.”

He went on to say: “I’ve never seen a time to turn off a ventilator. If a baby has a disease process that’s so bad that they’re going to die, then they die on the ventilator anyway. So you don’t have to stop the ventilator.”

Last January Baby Joseph's physician, Dr. Douglas Fraser, told the Ontario Consent & Capacity Board in January that “A tracheotomy would likely provide for a longer period of life, however, in our view would not result in improvement of well-being and could reduce quality of life.” Here we go with the old "quality of life" BS that assisted suicide proponants have used to justify the legalization of euthenasia. 1st of all he says could, not will, so he doesn't know for sure. Besides, what does he define as quality of life???? It seems to me that allowing the child to die at home with loving family is about as high a quality of life as you could want.

Fr. Frank Pavone, the head of Priests for Life has also gotten involved. Fr Pavone said that Priests for Life would pay all expenses to bring Baby Joseph & his family to a hospital in the United States that would agree to perform the tracheotomy making it possible for him to go home.

With all this, the hospital is looking more & more like it wants to kill Baby Joseph & get it over with. & it doesn't want any evidence to get out showing they made the wrong decision in the 1st place.

Fr Pavone had this to say about the hospital's actions: “The parents of this precious boy are asking only to be allowed to bring Baby Joseph home, where he can die surrounded by those who love him. It’s beyond imagination that they would have to ask. This is not an issue that belongs in the court, or in the hands of his doctors. This is their son; he needs to be home with his family."
He went on to say “This couple lost a child to this same disease eight years ago so they know exactly what they are dealing with, and what to expect as Baby Joseph reaches the end of his life. The small comfort they could take from Zina’s death was to know she died in peace surrounded by those whose lives she had touched in her own short life. They want the same for Baby Joseph.”
“This same barbaric act is what the Canadian court is asking Baby Joseph’s family to endure. It is cruel, it is criminal and it cannot be allowed to happen again.”

Dr. Byrne has also attacked the use of the term “vegetative state.”He called it a “made-up term” like the notion of “brain death.” He said that term was invented “simply to get beating hearts for transplantation.”

Arround the time of Terri Schiavo I began to hate the term "vegetative state" with or without "persistant" tacked on. The more I looked at the term, the more I saw it as a way to dehumanize a person rather than accurately describe the medical condition. & the treatment of Baby Joseph, like that of Terri Schaivo, just proves it.

Sources: Baby Joseph can go home to die, but without tracheotomy: family says unacceptable
Family Appealing Hospital’s Decision on Baby Joseph’s Life