AMERICA: CANADA: BABY JOSEPH'S LIFE ON THE LINE

CATHOLIC ONLINE REPORT: Baby Joseph is once again being threatened with death by judicial fiat. The hospital is attempting to have Joseph placed under Guardianship so his parents can no longer make medical decisions for him. They have said they will proceed with the removal of his breathing tube even if the Michigan hospital agrees to transfer him. This family needs your urgent prayers and your help.

Baby Joseph Maraachli

Baby Joseph Maraachli

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - Baby Joseph's story has taken another wrong turn. It seemed like some good news had finally come for this child and his parents on Sunday night when a hospital in Michigan agreed to review his case and possibly transfer him there to receive the care he needed. (Read backstory here.) But that relief was short-lived. Baby Joseph is once again being threatened with death by judicial fiat.

The Ontario hospital has asked the Office of the Public Guardian to assume guardianship of Joseph so decision-making power regarding his care will be taken from his parents and given to the guardian and hospital. The Public Guardian can order his breathing tube removed immediately at any time, and the hospital now says it will proceed with the removal even if the Michigan hospital offers to transfer Joseph. (A decision from the Office of the Public Guardian is expected any time.)

His parents are being robbed of their right to be parents and their authority over their infant son. The hospital seeks to exert its power over this child's life in order to end his life.

And if that weren't bad enough, the hospital has also added further insult to grievous injury by denying his parents the right to be with their son privately. They are now allowed to see their son only with a security guard present. They are being treated like criminals and Joseph like a hostage. A hostage to the hospital's death wish.

LifeSiteNews reports, "Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, which has been offering support to the parents, Moe Maraachli and Sana Nader, says they are now only allowed to see their son with a security guard present.

"They fight my family. ... they put security for me. They never give me private to pray with my son," Moe told Fox News this afternoon.

"Security watch me and security stay with me," he added. "When I go to hospital I feel I am not in Canada. I feel I'm in jail or they kidnapped my baby."

"It's ridiculous. It's not like they could pick the child up and take him home. The baby would die," said Schadenberg.

Schadenberg said that Moe tried to bring him in to see Joseph on Monday, but security denied him access to the room, and told him to leave the premises. "It's become crazy. The hospital's going overboard and it makes no sense," he said."

Indeed, this makes no sense. Why are they so bent on making sure this baby dies in their hospital, as soon as possible? Why not let him go home with his family? Why not let him be transferred? Why treat his parents like criminals simply because they don't want their son to be suffocated to death?

Perhaps this started out as a financial hole the hospital simply wanted out of. Joseph's care perhaps had gotten too expensive, with no "benefit" for all the expense. A financial liability. That's the focus of state-run health care - to get the greatest benefit for the dollar spent, and when the patient is too sick to be "worth it" anymore, then the care must be terminated, even if it means the patient is terminated.

But why the stubborn refusal to allow this child to live when someone else has offered to help? Why go even further by trying to usurp the parents' authority? Is it to make an example of them?

If the Maraachli's were to win this fight, it might encourage others in the same situation to resist the death mandate. Is that what the hospital and the court fears? Is this merely about asserting their control for the sake of control?

It certainly appears that way. Again I say, this is what happens when human beings are treated like animals to be "put to sleep." This is what comes of denying the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.

Drug-induced respiratory failure, or palliative care, does not equal dignity. It does not equal compassion. It does not equal respect for life. What's happening to Joseph and his parents is quite the opposite and it's wrong. It must be opposed.

Please continue to hold this family in your prayers and plead his case in emails and phone calls to the hospital. Here again is the Canadian 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

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
http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=40465

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