Baby Joseph Comes Home

Baby Joseph the 16th month old baby, who was recently at the center of a huge international right to life controversy, has gone home. He is no longer on a breathing machine.

A little background: Baby Joseph has a progressive and terminal neurological disease. He and his parents reside in Ontario,Canada, where his parent's request for a tracheotomy was refused, in the Canadian hospital where he was originally treated. Canada has national health care. His parents had requested this procedure in order to bring him home to die. This little 16 month old baby ignited a firestorm of debate on futile care and withdrawal of treatment. Many pro-life organizations intervened both financially, medically, legally as well as spiritually on the behalf of the parents of Baby Joseph. Father Frank Pavone spearheaded the successful effort to transfer Baby Joseph to Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Doctors there performed the tracheotomy that Baby Joseph's parents had requested. A tracheotomy is an opening into the windpipe, to keep an airway clear. It is routine in the United States for anyone who is facing long-term ventilation support. One of the questions, medical experts asked, was why had this baby not already been trached for comfort, as is routinely done in the U.S.? Perhaps it was the difference between national health care and the excellent care the United States provides.

Baby Joseph received a successful tracheotomy on March 21, 2011, and responded well to the procedure, which gave him increased mobility and comfort while providing a stable and secure airway. Doctor Wilmott, Chief of Pediatrics for Cardinal Glennon and St. Louis University School of Medicine said, "The baby has been breathing so well on his own, there will be no need to take him to a rehabilitation hospital, and he can be transported to Ontario. Joseph has been breathing on his own, without the aid of a mechanical ventilator for more than a week. By providing him with this common palliative procedure, we have given this baby the chance to go home and be with his family, after spending so much of his young life in the hospital."

Father Frank Pavone said, "Our mission to save Baby Joseph and help his family was never based on any prediction for the future, but rather on the value of his life here and now. Our critics, on the other hand, looking into the crystal ball that the right to die advocates seem to always think they have, claimed our intervention was futile, because Joseph would only end up having a machine do his breathing for him. We don't have to answer their criticism; Baby Joseph is doing that for us. Baby Joseph's victory over the culture of death is especially powerful now, as we prepare for Easter; a time when Christians everywhere celebrate Jesus' victory over death."