Judge rules brain dead woman can be taken off life support
Posted June 26, 2018 1:36 pm.
Last Updated June 26, 2018 6:37 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ten months after she was declared brain dead, a judge has ruled Brampton woman Taquisha McKitty is deceased and can be removed from life support barring any appeals.
McKitty, 27, was admitted to hospital in mid-September after a drug overdose. Her condition worsened and she stopped breathing on her own.
A doctor at Brampton Civic Hospital declared her dead on Sept. 20, but her family obtained an injunction to keep her on a respirator while contesting the hospital’s declaration of death in court.
McKitty’s family argued that she was still moving and showing signs of life.
But five doctors, including the one who declared McKitty brain dead, told the court that her movements were the result of spinal reflexes and weren’t proof of brain activity.
Tests showed no blood flow to her brain, and no electrical signal to the brain when her limbs were stimulated.
“There is no basis for this court to deviate from the recognition … that the medical and legal definition of death includes brain death,” the judge said in a lengthy ruling.
Her family had argued that under McKitty’s Christian faith, she is considered alive until her heart stops beating — an argument the judge rejected.
“Furthermore, the medical determination of death cannot be subject to an individual’s values and beliefs,” the judge ruled. “Death, as in the diagnosis of any other medical condition, is a finding of fact.”
The judge added that people declared dead no longer have rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
She also noted the “significant financial impact on the health-care system if a body that is biologically or physiologically functioning is to be maintained on mechanical ventilation until such time as the heart stops beating.”
McKitty’s father, Stanley Stewart, expressed his anger with the judge’s ruling.
“(The Judge) has determined that a person who has lived 27 years, who has given life to a person, and whose heart is still beating, has no rights.”
“Taquisha is alive and has always been alive and this decision does not change that.”
A hospital spokesperson offered condolences, but said it would “continue to follow the direction of the courts in this matter.”
Lawyer Hugh Scher, who represents McKitty’s family, said the ruling could set a troubling precedent.
“It leaves the determination of death exclusively to doctors without any means of oversight or consideration of the protections or values of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” he said in a statement.
“Such practices could lead to significant risks of abuse to vulnerable Canadians, particularly those who may be in minimally conscious states, experiencing Alzheimer’s or other situations of significant neurological impairment, or who may be misdiagnosed.”
Related:
Full coverage of Taquisha McKitty’s case
McKitty v. Hayani – Reasons for Decision by CityNewsToronto on Scribd
