[SuziQ]

According to everyone except this boy's mother, the child's physical condition was such that his life could not be maintained without the respirator because of a birth defect. If I remember correctly, his problem was that his lungs would continue to grow, but that his rib cage would not, thus slowly, and presumably painfully, squeezing the life out of him. There was no treatment for it, borne out by the fact that there was no other facility that could help him at all.

His mother didn't help her cause by claiming that the child didn't have an earthly father, that he was conceived by the Sun, thus his name. She had been evaluated by the psych unit of the hospital, but they didn't try to commit her. I guess the hospital didn't want to do that because they didn't want to seem heartless in not allowing her to be with her son.

There is nothing that requires hospitals to continue treatment if that treatment isn't going to make someone better. If there is no way that someone is going to survive, it is not required to keep them alive through artificial means.

[jocon307]

"His mother didn't help her cause by claiming that the child didn't have an earthly father, that he was conceived by the Sun, thus his name."

Oh dear. I'm afraid she doesn't sound very competant. Poor baby.