Joseph Maraachli and a Second Chance

I've written about Joseph Maraachli before. There's a little good news this time:

"EXCLUSIVE: 'Baby Joseph' Gets Second Chance at Life in U.S."
FoxNews.com (March 14, 2011)

"The baby who was hours from being pulled off life support at his Canadian hospital has been rescued by the national director of Priests for Life and taken to the U.S. for treatment.

"Thirteen-month-old Joseph Maraachli, who is currently kept alive by a respirator and was recently denied a transfer to a Michigan hospital to undergo a tracheotomy, arrived in the U.S. early Monday morning with Fr. Frank Pavone and other Priests for Life staff.

" 'Priests for Life staff toiled through the night for many nights, working in concert with dozens of people to make this possible,' Father Pavone said in a statement. 'Now that we have won the battle against the medical bureaucracy in Canada, the real work of saving Baby Joseph can begin.'

"Maraachli was on his way to SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis, Mo., a non-profit health-care facility open to all children in need of medical care...."

Joseph Maraachli has a neurological disorder that has him in what Canadian doctors called a "vegetative state." It's very likely that young Joseph, if he survives, will enjoy what dreadfully compassionate folks were calling a "quality lifestyle" a few decades back.

I haven't had a "quality lifestyle," myself - but I don't mind being alive, anyway. Which sounds like a different topic, but isn't. Not quite.

I've discussed Joseph Maraachli and his family, and what passes for 'medical ethics' these days, before. (February 28, 2011)

The Priests for Life website, as quoted in the article, put the situation quite well, I think:

"...The medical board overseeing his case is apparently convinced that giving proper care to "Baby Joseph" is futile,' the website reads. 'They don’t mean that the medical care won’t help him. They mean his life in its current condition isn’t worth the trouble.' "
(FoxNews.com)

Letting defective people die can be marketed as "compassion." The arguments often seem to boil down to 'they're ugly, aren't really living anyway, and I'm bored with them.' But then, I'm biased: I'm one of those folks who aren't 'really living.' And that is another topic.

Related posts:

• "Joseph Maraachli, Medical Ethics, and Making Sense"
  (February 28, 2011)
• "Christina Green, Organ Transplants, and Rules"
  (January 16, 2011)
• "Remember: 'Clinically Dead' isn't 'Dead' "
  (October 22, 2010)
• "Is it Wrong to Kill One Person on the Chance that Someone Else Might Benefit?"
  (August 30, 2010)
• "Medical Ethics and Human Experimentation: Why I Take it Personally"
  (February 3, 2009)

In the news:

• "EXCLUSIVE: 'Baby Joseph' Gets Second Chance at Life in U.S."
  FoxNews.com (March 14, 2011)