Baby Joseph’s lawyer dropped from case: prayer vigils planned

LifeSiteNews ^ | 3/1/11 | Patrick B. Craine

[wagglebee]

To join a Facebook page in support of the parents of Joseph Maraachli, click here.

LONDON, Ontario, March 1, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The expert lawyer representing dying one-year-old Joseph Maraachli, whose hospital is seeking to remove his ventilator against his parents’ wishes, was removed from the case today.

Mark Handelman, who the family hired with the financial backing of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, had been negotiating with the hospital, and was successful in having the hospital delay removing the ventilator.  It is unclear at this point what effect Handelman’s removal will have on Joseph’s cause.  LifeSiteNews was unsuccessful in reaching Joseph’s parents as of press time.

Joseph Maraachli

At the same time, the Washington-based Christian Defense Coalition announced Tuesday that they and the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network are holding two prayer gatherings in London, Ontario this weekend for Joseph,

The prayer and public witness events will be on Saturday, March 5, from 12:00-2:00 p.m. and Sunday, March 6, from 1:00-3:00 p.m. in front of the London Health Sciences Centre’s Children’s Hospital.  They will be held on the corner of Wellington and Commissioners Rd.

There will also be a rally in support of Joseph’s family on Saturday from 4:00-6:00 p.m.  Location to be announced.

Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, traveled to Canada last week with Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schiavo.  The two met and prayed with the family, pledged their support, and sought to connect them to legal assistance and to help to locate a hospital for Joseph in America.

“We are gathering for prayer and public witness as we stand in solidarity with Baby Joseph and his family,” said Rev. Mahoney.  “We will not be silent when it comes to this tragic crushing of human rights. ... We must always speak out with passion and courage when we see the dignity of human life trampled.”

“We support the family as the ones who should be making the final decision on how to best deal with this beautiful child,” he added.  “The courts and the hospital have completely disregarded the wishes of the family and are crushing their parental rights.”

Joseph suffers from a severe neurological disorder, but his specific condition remains undiagnosed.  Doctors have given him no chance of recovery, so his parents, Moe Maraachli and Sana Nader, have asked them to perform a tracheostomy which would enable him to breathe on his own, so that they could take him home.  Their daughter died from similar complications eight years ago, but in that case doctors performed a tracheostomy and they were able to take her home.

The hospital said Monday that they are willing to send Joseph home, but will not perform the tracheostomy. Instead, once he’s home, they would remove his ventilator, after which he will almost certainly die within a matter of minutes.  It is unclear at this point how the family will respond to the offer.

Dr. Paul Byrne, a fifty-year veteran in the field of neonatology, told LifeSiteNews Monday that in his opinion Joseph should have had a tracheostomy “a long time ago.”  He also insisted that he has never seen a need to remove a child’s ventilator, saying that “if a baby has a disease process that’s so bad that they’re going to die, then they die on the ventilator anyway.”

The hospital had appeared set to remove Joseph’s ventilator last Monday, but was delayed when Handelman made clear to the family that they could refuse.  The hospital’s move came after a February 17th decision from Ontario Superior Court Justice Helen Rady upholding a January verdict from the Consent and Capacity Board of Ontario, which had supported the doctors’ move to take Joseph off life support against his parents’ wishes.

Justice Rady’s decision was based on doctors’ testimony that he is in a permanent vegetative state with no brain stem reflex.  But the family says that footage released Thursday by LifeSiteNews belies the doctors’ claim.  The videos, taken just over a week ago, show him flailing and reacting to tickling.  They also show that his hands have been tied down - a measure the hospital took after Joseph removed the tube from his throat on at least two separate occasions.

The hospital is now asking Ontario’s Office of the Public Guardian to intervene and allow them to take Joseph off his ventilator, after the parents have continued to refuse consent.  That office has been unsuccessful in asking other family members to consent instead, and could intervene itself any day.

In the last week, the case has drawn attention from major pro-life and anti-euthanasia groups in the U.S. who hope to find a hospital willing to take over Joseph’s care.  Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of the U.S.-based Priests for Life, has pledged to pay for Joseph to be moved to a hospital in the U.S.

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, has warned that the court decision facilitates a system where doctors are authorized to force life and death decisions on patients.  He has said he believes it is far worse than the “death panels” recently debated in the U.S. as part of the federal health care law.

“It’s the hospitals and the doctors once again usurping their power over the people,” he said.  “That’s what’s happening.  And they have significant power - they have the money and the courts behind them.  It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Over 13,000 people have rallied behind the parents through the Facebook page “Save baby Joseph”.

To join a Facebook page in support of the parents of Joseph Maraachli, click here.

Contact Information:

Bonnie Adamson
President and CEO, London Health Sciences Centre
800 Commissioners Road East
London, Ontario Canada N6A 5W9
Phone: 519-685-8462
E-mail: bonnie.adamson@lhsc.on.ca

Dalton McGuinty, Premier
Legislative Building
Queen’s Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A1
Fax: (416) 325-3745
E-mail: Use this form.

Tim Hudak, Opposition Leader
The Ontario PC Party
19 Duncan Street
Suite 401
Toronto, ON M5H 3H1
Phone: 416-861-0020
Toll-free: 1-800-903-6453
Fax: 416-861-9593
Email: tim.hudakco@pc.ola.org

[BykrBayb]

I have been there.

Should we act surprised? It always comes down to that, doesn't it? Whenever we see someone pushing euthanasia of disabled people, it always turns out they've been there themselves, and always made the same "choice." And they always assume that anyone who hasn't chosen to kill a disabled person was never given that opportunity. Well, you ass-u-me the wrong thing. Not everyone is greedy, blood-thirsty and heartless.

[trisham]

Thanks for your invaluable contributions to this thread, Dr. K.

[trisham]

Notice how consistent this case is with Schiavo's?

*****************************

Yes. It's eerie.

[trisham]

You say you give up? Good. EVERYONE who believes as you do should give up and allow those who actually care about human life to care for the sick and disabled.

******************************************

I could not agree more!

[Brian Kopp DPM]

I don't think you are delusional, you're simply wrong. I looked back through your posting history, and you are obsessed with other people spending government money. Your obsession with preventing other people from spending tax dollars has blinded you to the medical ethics issues of this case. But I wouldn't call you delusional just because you disagree with my personal opinion.

To do so would be ... delusional.

Good day to you, nurse.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

All of you are delusional.

You have no idea of what you are talking about- I do.

EXCLUSIVE: Videos show ‘vegetable’ Baby Joseph reacting to parents
by Patrick B. Craine
Thu Feb 24, 2011

LONDON, Ontario, February 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Dying one-year-old Joseph Maraachli’s family says two new videos of him flailing and reacting to tickling belie his hospital’s claim that he is in a permanent vegetative state.

The video of Joseph being tickled, which was shot Sunday evening only hours before the hospital had planned to remove his life support, also shows Joseph’s hands tied down - a measure the hospital took after Joseph removed the tube from his throat on at least two separate occasions.

“How can a baby be in a vegetative state who has his hands tied - as we speak - for him to not pull out his tube?” asked Joseph’s aunt, Samar Nader.  “How does a baby in a vegetative state respond to combing or tickling?”

“What really boggles my mind is how we’re not allowed to videotape him or have media outlets watching him to show the public what he’s like,” she added.  “That’s very frustrating.”

The family took Victoria Hospital in London to court last week to prevent them from removing his life support against their wishes, but Ontario Superior Court Justice Helen Rady sided with the hospital.  Her decision was based on doctors’ testimony that he is in a permanent vegetative state with no brain stem reflex.

But family members question the doctors’ judgment, saying Joseph is fully responsive to touch, particularly that he hates being touched by cold hands, tickles easily, and moves his head when his hair is brushed.  They also say he responds to loud noises by turning his head toward the sound.

Sam Sansalone, a spokesman for the family, says the fact that the hospital has had to tie his hands down shows “how absurd” the claim is that Joseph is in a vegetative state. 

“How could a supposedly persistent vegetative state child have so many occasions of purposeful neuromuscular movements of yanking out their uncomfortable air tube, so many times that hospital staff would have to tie his hands to prevent further episodes?” he asked.

Sansalone also says that hospital staff failed to note the tube removals in his chart.

Joseph suffers from a severe neurological disorder, but his specific condition remains undiagnosed.  Doctors have given him no chance of recovery, so his parents, Moe Maraachli and Sana Nader, have asked them to perform a tracheotomy which would enable him to breathe on his own, so that they could take him home.  The doctors have refused, saying the procedure is too risky.

Their daughter died from similar complications eight years ago, but in that case doctors performed a tracheotomy and they were able to take her home.

In January, the Consent and Capacity Board of Ontario sided with the hospital, a decision backed up by Justice Rady last Thursday.  The hospital appeared set to remove Joseph’s life support on Monday at 10 a.m., but that got delayed when the family hired expert lawyer Mark Handelman over the weekend with the financial support of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

To make a donation to cover the legal costs please click here.

The family has been trying to have Joseph transferred to a hospital in the U.S., where they believe he’ll get better care or at least a reassessment, and possibly the tracheotomy they need to bring him home. 

The family has expressed concerns that hospital security is following them around and denying them private visitations with Joseph.

On Tuesday, Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, where the family had hoped to have Joseph transferred, refused to take him despite previous assurances that they would.  The family says, however, that they are far from out of options.

The clock is ticking for the family as Joseph’s current hospital has asked Ontario’s Office of the Public Guardian to assume decision-making power after the family refused to have Joseph’s life support removed on Monday.  The public guardian could order it removed at any point.

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, warned in a Fox news interview that the court decision facilitates a system where doctors are authorized to force life and death decisions on patients.  He has said he believes it is far worse than the “death panels” recently debated in the U.S. as part of the federal health care law.

He emphasized to LifeSiteNews last week that the family isn’t pushing for extraordinary treatment, just asking to care for their dying child at home.  “They’re arguing that the best way to do that is by doing a tracheotomy so the child can somewhat breathe on his own and care for him while he’s dying,” he explained.

“It’s the hospitals and the doctors once again usurping their power over the people,” he said.  “That’s what’s happening.  And they have significant power - they have the money and the courts behind them.  It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Over 9,000 people have rallied behind the parents through the Facebook page “Save baby Joseph”.

[wagglebee]

There were plenty of videos of Terri too, it didn't matter to those who are determined to kill her.

[BykrBayb]

They didn’t even care when she screamed “I WANT....” They said she might have been trying to say “I want to die.” If she was saying “I want to die” that negates their claim that she was unable to speak. But they used their claim that she might have been trying to say she wanted to die as justification for killing her.

[wagglebee]

I think that an Ayn Rand mindset has overtaken the thoughts of people who would be good conservatives.

Not everything is about money and this case certainly isn't.

The cost of a tracheotomy is a couple thousand dollars at most; my father-in-law does them all the time, it's one of the oldest surgical procedures in the world and really not a big deal. If the ONLY THING this hospital cares about is the cost of the tracheotomy, I'll be happy to give them a credit card number over the phone and pay for the whole thing right now.

If Father Pavone says that he is willing to pay for Baby Joseph to be moved to a hospital in the US, that means he has the necessary funds to do it.

My suspicion with this case is that it is just like so many other pro-life cases, the culture of death is using money as a red herring to mask their true agenda.

[trisham]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Objectivism is a philosophy defined by the Russian-American philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand (1905–1982). Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive and deductive logic, that the proper moral purpose of one’s life is the pursuit of one’s own happiness or rational self-interest, that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in laissez faire capitalism, and that the role of art in human life is to transform man’s widest metaphysical ideas, by selective reproduction of reality, into a physical form—a work of art—that he can comprehend and to which he can respond emotionally.
Rand originally expressed her philosophical ideas in her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and other works. She further elaborated on them in her magazines The Objectivist Newsletter, The Objectivist, and The Ayn Rand Letter, and in non-fiction books such as Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology and The Virtue of Selfishness.[1]
The name “Objectivism” derives from the principle that human knowledge and values are objective: they are not created by the thoughts one has, but are determined by the nature of reality, to be discovered by man’s mind.[2] Rand stated that she chose the name because her preferred term for a philosophy based on the primacy of existence—”existentialism”—had already been taken.[3]

[trisham]

More from Wikipedia:

Ethics: rational self-interest
See also: Objectivist theory of value
Rand defines morality as “a code of values to guide man’s choices and actions—the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of his life.”[42] Rand maintained that the first question isn’t what should the code of values be, the first question is “Does man need values at all—and why?”
According to Rand, “it is only the concept of ‘Life’ that makes the concept of ‘Value’ possible,” and, “the fact that a living entity is, determines what it ought to do.”.[43] Rand writes: “there is only one fundamental alternative in the universe: existence or non-existence—and it pertains to a single class of entities: to living organisms. The existence of inanimate matter is unconditional, the existence of life is not: it depends on a specific course of action... It is only a living organism that faces a constant alternative: the issue of life or death...” The survival of the organism is the ultimate value to which all of the organism’s activities are aimed, the end served by all of its lesser values.

[wagglebee]

I think Whittaker Chambers did the best job at exposing Ayn Rand:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/222482/big-sister-watching-you/flashback

There is a tendency to lump objectivists and libertarians with conservatives, the reality is that they are very dangerous to conservatism.

[trisham]

Thanks for that. I read both books in high school, and they left me cold.

[kaila]

If I want to have my bunions removed, I will see someone like you- a podiatrist.
A podiatrist is not an MD.
The day you are in a pediatric ICU dealing with children like these as an intensivist, neurologist,or a pulmonologist- then I will listen to your opinion.
Otherwise, listen to the experts on this case.
You are not an expert. I listen to the experts on issues like this.

[kaila]

Managing a babies airway is a whole different ball of wax than managing a child’s airway.

[EDINVA]

The lawyer’s removal might just be a strategic move by the family, with the lawyer. The hospital might not be able to ‘move’ against the family unless they are represented by competent counsel. So, they take another month or so to line up a replacement lawyer, extending Baby Joseph’s life, while other options, i.e., to move him out of the country, are explored and gotten into a position to act upon. I hope that’s what’s going on.

[kaila]

“I looked back through your posting history, and you are obsessed with other people spending government money. Your obsession with preventing other people from spending tax dollars has blinded you to the medical ethics issues of this case.”

If you are a true Freeper, it is not the governments money, it is our money paid through our blood and sweat via taxation.
I do not want to see it wasted in futility.
If the Catholics want to pay for it, go for it.The American healthcare system should not pay for this.
Plan on a couple of hundred thousand. Write the checks if you mean it.
However, there are lots of Mexican children who need American healthcare, but somehow you are all resistent to paying for healthcare for illegals.
Somehow, this does not compute.

[wagglebee]

The day you are in a pediatric ICU dealing with children like these as an intensivist, neurologist,or a pulmonologist- then I will listen to your opinion.

My father-in-law is a pulmonologist, he's been practicing for over 40 years and he's been listed in multiple publications as one of the top pulmonologists in the nation and has received extensive recognition from his peers.

I asked him about this and he agrees with Brian.

I notice that you have yet to address my question from the other night about assisted suicide in Washington state (saying that you didn't vote in that election is a cop-out, not an answer). Do you support assisted suicide in your state? YES or NO.

[wagglebee]

You may have a point, I hope so anyway.

[BykrBayb]

Why would you want us to euthanize Americans to pay the bills of illegal aliens?