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Moe Maraachli with his son Joseph. WINDSOR, Ontario, October 5, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Baby Joseph Maraachli’s father has called for the Ontario provincial government to launch an investigation into his son’s treatment at the London hospital that tried to have his ventilator removed against his parents’ wishes. Moe Maraachli says he is considering a lawsuit against the doctors who refused to give Joseph the simple procedure that allowed him to spend his final five months at home. “I will go after them,” Maraachli, 37, told the Windsor Star on Tuesday. “I made promise to Joseph: ‘I will give you back...

September 28, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Joseph Maraachli, who at only barely one year old drew a groundswell of support when an Ontario hospital refused a simple procedure that would allow him to die at home, has passed away. Baby Joseph, who suffered from a severe but undiagnosed neurological disorder, lived for more than five months after he was flown to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in Missouri for a tracheostomy and brought home. Alex Schadenburg of the Canada-based Euthanasia Prevention Coalition said Wednesday morning that Baby Joseph died at home surrounded by his family.  “Joseph Maraachli lived a life...

Baby Joseph This week, one of the most searing and difficult bioethical cases I have ever encountered was brought to my attention. It involves a premature baby born with serious and substantial developmental anomalies that will in all likelihood cost this little one her life. Before going further with the story, what are most needed at this moment are prayers for Emily (name changed), her mom, and her family. Identifying information has been changed to safeguard the family’s privacy.Emily was born with over a dozen heart defects, and her trachea and esophagus are joined into one common tube at one...

In the early hours of Holy Thursday, 2011, as Churches were preparing – and in some parts of the world already celebrating – the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and the washing of the feet, “Baby Joseph” was flown from St Louis, where he has been treated since I brought him there in mid-March, to his home in Windsor, Canada. As the Church prepared to celebrate the day when the Lord gave us the command to “love one another,” Baby Joseph’s parents and older brother were enjoying the fruit of the hard fight that their love inspired. They fought...

Baby Joseph is home, and apparently not as unconscious as the London hospital representative stated. From the story: Baby Joseph napping at home in his crib on Easter Sunday is all the proof his father needs that his Ontario doctors were wrong. Only months ago, the fate of 15-month-old Joseph Maraachli was a question mark. Doctors at London Health Sciences Centre in London, Ont., sought to take the infant off life support as he battled a progressive neurological disease. But on Sunday, the round-cheeked baby was home in Windsor, resting in a cradle packed with plush toys. Now and...

WINDSOR, Ont. — Baby Joseph napping at home in his crib on Easter Sunday is all the proof his father needs that his Ontario doctors were wrong. Only months ago, the fate of 15-month-old Joseph Maraachli was a question mark. Doctors at London Health Sciences Centre in London, Ont., sought to take the infant off life support as he battled a progressive neurological disease. But on Sunday, the round-cheeked baby was home in Windsor, resting in a cradle packed with plush toys. Now and then he opened his eyes or wriggled a little, or moved his arms beneath father Moe...

Baby Joseph with his father Moe Maraachli early this morning as they head home to Windsor, Canada. WINDSOR, Ontario, April 21, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Baby Joseph and his family arrived in Windsor, Ontario on a medical transport flight from St. Louis, Missouri this morning. He is now at the family home, according to Brother Paul O’Donnell. On behalf of Baby Joseph’s family, Brother O’Donnell told LifeSiteNews that that their son was weaned off ventilator support 12 days ago and has been successfully breathing on his own since then. Baby Joseph, who has been at the center of an international right-to-life...

Baby Joseph Maraachli Heading Home After Getting Tracheotomy St. Louis, MO -- Baby Joseph Maraachli is heading back home to Canada after his parents received help from an American pro-life group that assisted when a Canadian hospital refused to provide the baby a tracheotomy to help him breathe. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/21/baby-joseph-maraachli-heading-home-after-getting-tracheotomy/

I received an email from a reader today asking about the current status of Baby Joseph. The last I heard, he had the tracheotomy about a month ago. I decided to check, and here is what I found. From the story: The child known as Baby Joseph remains at a St. Louis hospital, more than three weeks after receiving a tracheotomy to connect him to a portable breathing machine in an effort to extend his life. Joseph Maraachli has Leigh syndrome, a progressive neurological disorder. He came to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center from Canada, where doctors believed the...

I recently read an article in the London Free Press (March 22nd) about the highly publicized Joseph Maraachli situation titled, Baby Joseph Case Becomes Political Issue in U.S. As the Executive Director the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network, I was personally involved in helping Baby Joseph’s parents keep control of the medical treatment decisions that were being made for their son.Joseph was diagnosed with a brain condition that doctors believe will eventually cause his untimely death. Joseph's parents, Moe and Sana, understood that their son’s case was terminal. Their only request was for a simple procedure to be performed that...

Now that Baby Joseph Maraachli has had the tracheotomy his parents wanted him to have so he could breathe easier as he dies from a rare medical condition that will soon take his life, he will soon be transferred to a new hospital.Doctors at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis performed the tracheotomy on March 21 and, in a follow-up statement, deemed the procedure “medically appropriate” after a thorough examination of the 14-month-old boy who a Canadian hospital refused to help.“It is our hope that this procedure will allow Joseph and his family the gift of...

Joseph Maraachli just after his baptism St. Louis, Mo., Mar 25, 2011 / 06:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The godfather of Baby Joseph Maraachli, whose fight for life has attracted international attention and support, says the terminally ill boy's recent baptism was a testimony to the eternal destiny of human life.“It's a tremendous testimony to the sanctity of life,” said Jerry Horn, senior vice president of the Catholic pro-life ministry Priests For Life, who was Joseph's baptismal sponsor. “So many people worked together in concert to bring him here, for a purpose greater than we could anticipate.”“We were doing what...

March 23, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Baby Joseph Maraachli has now been baptized, according to Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life. In an e-mail update about baby Joseph’s status, Fr. Pavone announced: “Baby Joseph was baptized just the other day, and Jerry Horn of our Priests for Life team is now his godfather.” The past two weeks have been full of major developments for Joseph and his family. After being airlifted to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri last week, on Monday doctors at the hospital performed the tracheotomy that Joseph’s parents have been requesting all...

Health Reform: A Canada court had ruled that under socialized medicine their baby must die in the hospital. Now he's in the U.S., getting the care his parents, not the bureaucrats, want. Joseph Maraachli, who’d been set to have his ventilator removed against his parents’ wishes at an Ontario hospital last month, got a tracheotomy Monday morning and is doing well, his family says. The procedure was denied him under a system of medicine that may be coming to a hospital near you courtesy of ObamaCare. His parents, Moe Maraachli and Sana Nader, took Joseph to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical...

To join a Facebook page in support of the parents of Joseph Maraachli, click here. ST. LOUIS, Missouri, March 21, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Joseph Maraachli, who had been set to have his ventilator removed against his parents’ wishes at an Ontario hospital last month, received a tracheotomy Monday morning and is doing well, says his family. His parents, Moe Maraachli and Sana Nader, took Joseph to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri last Sunday after trying unsuccessfully to get him the simple procedure at his Ontario hospital, London Health Sciences Centre. The surgery involves a slit...

Baby Joseph Maraachli Receives Tracheotomy Today at Hospital St. Louis, MO -- Baby Joseph Maraachli, the 14-month-old Canadian infant who was denied the medical procedure in his country, will receive a tracheotomy today at a Catholic hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/03/21/baby-joseph-maraachli-receives-tracheotomy-today-at-hospital/

We have discussed the Baby Joseph futile care case here.  He is the baby who a Canadian hospital wanted to force off life support against the parents will and whose parents want a tracheotomy to help him live longer and at home. The impasse was resolved when the parents were able to move him to a St. Louis hospital.Well, now Peter Singer has come out against the parents.  From his column in the NY Daily News calling continuing care of Joseph “Deeply Misguided: “ Joseph’s parents, who have previously had another child who died from the same disease, objected...

The world has taken notice of a 14-month old baby from Canada whose family has been fighting the medical establishment since October to help their child breathe. Moe and Sana Maraachli were refused a tracheotomy for their son because the apparently fatal neurological disease that the child has renders further intervention “futile.” Working with many others, we at Priests for Life arranged to have the baby transferred to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St Louis, and I went on the medical jet to pick up the baby and his father on Sunday night March 13. Now, the child...

Imagine the crushing judicial power of a modern nation coming down upon you, trying you, sentencing you, and then planning your execution – all while the charges against you remain secret. You might recall that as the plot of Franz Kafka’s paranoiac novel, The Trial, the protagonist of which is a 30-year-old bank clerk. Under the spell of Kafka’s masterful telling, the reader is left feeling almost as though the horror of the sentence pales in comparison to simply not knowing why. I revisited the haunted feeling of that novel over the past week or so as the case of...

Baby Joseph Maraachli, the 14-month-old Canadian infant who was denied the medical procedure in his country, will get a tracheotomy either today or tomorrow that will allow the child to live another 6 months.Joseph was rescued late Sunday from the Canadian hospital by Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, who paid for a private specialized medical plane to take the boy to SSM Cardinal Glennon ChildrenÂ’s Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri so he could have the medical procedure before his parents take him home, where he will likely die soon from a degenerative neurological condition. A team of...