News

TORONTO, Dec 2 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Toronto Western Hospital is battling the family of devout Catholic pro-lifer Sophia Park who want the hospital to keep her on life-support, despite her brain death diagnosis, because she is 10 weeks pregnant. 

While Sophia’s husband and family have told doctors that they want Sophia kept on life support at least another 3 months to deliver her baby safely, doctors do not regard the baby as a person and thus the baby is not considered a patient in need of care.

Shin told the media that doctors at the hospital urge the family to give up the fight for the right to life for the baby. 

“Almost every day they try to convince us [to stop life support],” he said.  |Hospital officials have warned the family that their resistance could be futile. “They told us if two doctors agree, they can pull the plug, that it is legal,”  Shin said referring to a discussion with hospital physicians Saturday. “But we said: ‘The baby is still alive, how can you pull the plug?’” 

Doctors have also used scare tactics to have the family abandon the baby. 

The Star reports that Shin said he was told by doctors that if the fetus survives, “it would likely have tuberculosis and be severely deformed due to the X-rays, surgery and arsenal of drugs pumped into Park’s system.” 

LifeSite contacted Toronto neurologist Dr. Paul Ranalli who indicated that from the available information the doctors’ claims of deformity of the child are absolutely ridiculous. Dr. Ranalli notes that the antibiotics and X-rays would not have seriously affected the baby and that many mothers have had healthy babies while undergoing such treatments. Ranalli said that the babies chances for healthy delivery were 95% given proper care for the mother, and that the true objection to sustaining the life of the baby boils down to cost. Dr. Barry de Veber of the London de Veber Institute for Bioethics provided LifeSite with a similar assessment. 

Ranalli informed LifeSite that US precedents show that babies in such circumstances can and have survived. 

In one case in July of 1996, a baby was born to a comatose woman in Rochester New York after a man had raped her while she lay in a coma. The baby was born two months early but in good health. 

Shin stressed that his wife would have wanted the baby to live saying that she “is devoutly Catholic and has taken part in pro-life rallies.” 

Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) and CLC Youth representatives went to the hospital and presented Mr. Shin with flowers. 

Tanya Granic president of CLCY told LifeSite that she and Smantha Singson met with Shin promising him the prayers of the pro-life movement and offering legal and medical advice. 

With files from the Toronto Star and the National Post.