Judge Delays Decision on Removing Life Support

A judge heard arguments yesterday in the case of a 12-year-old boy who was declared dead by Children's National Medical Center, but he held off making a decision until he can hear from the family and medical experts Thursday.

The parents of Motl Brody, who remains in the hospital's intensive-care unit, did not attend the hearing in D.C. Superior Court. Motl has brain cancer and has been in the hospital since June 1. The hospital says that he has no brain activity, meeting the legal definition for death in the District. Doctors declared him dead Tuesday.

The hospital is asking Judge William Jackson to affirm its judgment that the boy can be taken off life-sustaining equipment. Yesterday, the hospital supplied medical records to the family's attorney. At issue is the definition of brain-dead and the hospital's position that nothing more can be done for the boy.

Kenneth Rosenau, an attorney for the hospital, said Motl had "ceased to exist. What we have left is not a human being." As of Thursday, the boy's lungs began failing, even with mechanical assistance, Rosenau said.

The judge ordered both sides to return to court Thursday to allow the family's attorney, Jeffrey Zuckerman, to review five boxes of hospital records in preparation for a more extensive hearing. The parents could testify at that time; the hospital has lined up several experts to explain its position. At least three of the hospital's doctors and a social worker are also scheduled to testify.

Motl's parents, Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn, N.Y., are challenging the hospital's pronouncement of death based on the absence of brain activity. Their faith does not define death in that way, and they note that Motl has respiratory and circulatory functions, albeit with mechanical assistance.

In addition to the emotional issues involving life and death, a dispute has emerged over when the parents last visited Motl.

In court yesterday, Rosenau said that according to hospital records, the parents have not visited the boy since late July.

"That is an outright lie," Zuckerman said after the hearing.

Although the parents, Eluzer and Miriam Brody, have not been at the hospital in the past two weeks, Zuckerman said, they were there more recently than July. He said he did not know exactly when they made their last visit.

"This hospital wants to kill him instead of treat him," Zuckerman said. He said the entire experience has been "torture" for the boy's parents.

In September, the hospital planned to move the boy to a hospice, but the family objected to the move because it was around Yom Kippur. At one point, Zuckerman said, the family wanted to move the boy to a hospital in New York so he would be closer to his parents and six brothers and sisters. But when the hospital declared him brain-dead, Zuckerman said, no hospital in New York would take him.

Another reason the boy was not transferred, Zuckerman said, was that the hospital feared the boy would not survive the drive to New York and "might not make it as far as Baltimore on I-95," he said.

Rosenau said the family had resisted further tests on the boy.

Mary Anne Hilliard, another attorney for the hospital, said in an interview that she hoped the dispute can be settled out of court. Hilliard said the past few weeks had been difficult for staff members, who are already stretched caring for other children in intensive care.

"This child is no longer with us," she said, adding that other sick children must be considered.