Joseph Maraachli, “who became widely known as Baby Joseph” (All they wanted was to bring him home”: Parents' agony as baby Joseph loses his fight for life, 2011), was apparently healthy when he was born on January 22, 2010. Only three months later his parents started to notice that, their son has some problems with breathing and eating. They decided to take him to a hospital of Michigan, where Joseph was diagnosed with a metabolic brain disease which, according to the doctors of the hospital, could only provoke some delays in Joseph’s development. Meanwhile, in October, 2010 Joseph stopped breathing and his parents took him to an emergency room. After that Joseph was transferred to the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) where during several weeks, eight specialists were investigating his case carrying out numbers of tests and examinations. They concluded that, Joseph was terminally ill and was actually in a persistent vegetative state which means “absence of responsiveness and awareness due to overwhelming dysfunction of the cerebral hemispheres, with sufficient sparing of the diencephalon and brain stem to preserve autonomic and motor reflexes and sleep-wake cycles.” (Maiese “Vegetative State and Minimally Conscious State”, 2014). The doctors announced to Joseph’s family that nothing could save him in such a state and suggested to remove Joseph’s breathing tubes in order not to protract his death. Joseph’s parents did not agree with such a decision, contending that this removal would cause much suffering to their child. So they “requested that doctors perform a tracheotomy” (Conly, 2011). In March, 2011 after having struggled so much with Canadian medical institutions, Joseph’s parents finally achieved the tracheotomy for their son so that he could die peacefully at his home surrounded by his family. After that, he returned to his house and died in his sleep on September 27, 2011.
The case of Joseph Maraachli is internationally known because of its controversy. It has had a significant impact on other end-of-life decisions and the Culture of death. On one hand, supporting unbearable existence which is possible only with breathing tubes seems unreasonable for such a little child who in his young age is more inclined to run, jump and laugh and not to spend all the time in bed with some plastic in his throat and nose. On the other hand, removal of the above-mentioned plastic would definitely cause Joseph’s suffocation and his death would be complicated with undue suffering.
The case of Baby Joseph has touched many people over the world because it raised a very important problem of human existence: do we have a right to end someone’s life even if this life seems to us unbearable? In Joseph’s case this controversy was even more pronounced because of his parents who couldn’t accept such a hard death of their son: removal of the tubes would kill Joseph physically and affect his parents psychologically. So the real controversy and the main issue consist in that whether we should primarily think of a dying person or his family suffering from losing its member.
Unfortunately, in many countries with a high quality of life, the notion of Culture of death still remains unknown. Medical institutions should always look for a compromise with the family of a dying person. It is evident that in Joseph’s case such solution was found and realized in tracheotomy. Meanwhile, it is very unfortunate that Joseph’s family had to spend so much time in courts to get this ruling instead of spending it with Joseph.
References
Associated Press “All they wanted was to bring him home”: Parents' agony as baby Joseph loses his fight for life. (September 28, 2011). Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2042894/Terminally-ill-baby-Joseph-Maraachli-dies-home-aged-20-months.html.
Conly, M. (March 2, 2011). Parents Fight Canadian Hospital for Child's Survival. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Health/baby-josephs-treatment-sparks-controversy-pediatric-end-life/story?id=13032001.
Maise, K. (March, 2014) Vegetative State and Minimally Conscious State. Retrieved from http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/neurologic-disorders/coma-and-impaired-consciousness/vegetative-state-and-minimally-conscious-state.
