the story is not being reported fully, if you read the article and those of us who know about this will tell you the media failed to report everything in its entirety.
this family went through the exact same thing with a previous child and tried the whole court ordeal before. I lived an hour from where they live and I remember this very well. the first time they won the right to have the child die in their home peacefully. But our doctors and hospitals have a procedure they must follow and made an exception with this child.
the parents went and had 2 more children though they knew it was a 50/50 chance that the children would be born with the exact same neurological disease. this time around the parents are trying to postpone the inevitable. the child cannot breath on his own and even with the apparatus in the child has to be revived numerous times. the doctors, some highly respected neuro surgeons know that this is just making that child suffer more and have proven it to the courts. the parents are now asking for the same right to take the child home and allow him to die at the house. However this time around they said NO, because this child is a high risk child and if anything goes wrong the parents could potentially sue the hospital and the doctors. They are not looking at it as saving money etc...I know of three people who are in a vegetative state that a neuro surgeon has said they may one day wake up because there is some brain activity that are in long term care at this very same hospital. I know this because I used to volunteer at the Hospital in London Ontario.
I feel awfully bad both for mom and dad and the sibling who has to go through this right now. I could never imagine having to make a decision such as this and then try to fight it. But they know the reasons why they were turned down. and the reasons why the court ordered the breathing tubes out. The sad part is the public is only getting half the story.
I just hope this child doesn't suffer anymore than he already has. And the same for the parents. I also do wish that they could just make them sign release papers and allow a nurse to to be at their home, as we have the support program for this. However the doctors see it as too risky. especially since they went through this with another child last summer and the whole thing went down the tubes real fast. Which is another reason they will not allow it.
Ema