Eluzar and Miriam Brody are facing perhaps the hardest situation any parent can encounter. Their son, Motl, had brain cancer. Now doctors say the twelve-year-old is brain dead, and they've recommended removing the boy from life support. But his heart, beating with the help of intravenous drugs, has kept the Orthodox Jews from saying yes.
The Brody's religion interprets a beating heart and functioning lungs (currently powered by a ventilator) as signs of life. According to their attorney, "his family has a religious obligation to secure all necessary and appropriate medical treatment to keep him alive." The issue came this week, when doctors at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. determined the boy's condition had deteriorated beyond that of a persistant vegitative state. A story at MSNBC breaks down his condition, explaining Motl Brody's brain has actually begun to decompose.
Setting religion aside, this isn't something I'd expect any parent to decide easily. The hospital's determination came Wednesday. The first news story hit a day later.
What makes this story even more upsetting is the fact that Children's National offered to move, as they called it, Motl's "earthly remains" (honestly, as a parent, couldn't they have come up with a more sympathetic way of putting it?). But no hospital closer to the Brody's Brooklyn, New York home has agreed to take in a brain-dead child. They've agreed to give the case until this Wednesday out of respect for the family's religious beliefs.
How long should a family get to make this kind of decision - religion or no religion?
Image: Children's Medical Center
