The London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario Sues to Force Parents to Consent to Killing Child

Talk about death panels. The London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario hospital staff and doctors went to court to order parents of a child to consent to the killing of their son by stopping medical treatment. Not only does the hospital not want to do a fairly simple surgical procedure (a tracheotomy) but wants to stop all treatment and force the parents to say they agree. Nicely totalitarian. You not only have to act like we say but publicly say we're right.

"Joseph has a fatal neuro-degenerative disease and can only survive with the aid of a ventilator.

"His parents Moe Maraachli and Sana Nader want to him to have a tracheotomy, which would allow him to breathe without the respirator and which they believed could prolong his life by up to six months.

"Then they want to take him home so he can die surrounded by relatives.

"But doctors are refusing to do the tracheotomy, saying that it would needlessly prolong his life. Instead they wanted to turn off the life support machine and let him die on the ward.

"Today the hospital announced it has backed down on its refusal to let the family take Joseph home and let him die there.

"But officials are standing strong over the tracheotomy, instead insisting that hospital staff take Joseph off the ventilator once he gets home - perhaps only giving him minutes to live.

"Joseph has been on life support at the Centre since last October."
. . .

"The matter went* to court where a judge ruled in the hospital’s favour and ordered the parents to give their consent to remove Baby Joseph’s breathing tube so he could die at the hospital."

They have refused to do so and are considering an appeal so their little boy can pass away ‘on God’s time’.

So much for advance directives. In Canada they can just order you to consent to your own death or the death of another.

"Ms Nader added: ‘When I’m in the hospital, I don’t feel I’m in Canada, I feel I’m in some country with no human rights.’"

Poor Canadians. Maybe they should be fleeing legally or illegally to the U.S. Oregon might be a good choice because courts here order parents to give medical treatment to children and remove children from parental custody when treatment is not given.

"'It is not our preference to prosecute parents for failing to give their children medical care,' [Clackamas County District Attorney John] Foote wrote. 'Our first preference is to have parents take on that responsibility so that children do not die.'"

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*Actions don't go to court on their own. The passivity in this sentence shows a bit of the reporter's bias. The hospital sued to force the parents to say what the parents do not believe. And the court agreed that you can make people say what they don't believe. A modern, judicial rack.