A judge has dismissed a family’s request to keep their daughter, Taquisha McKitty on life support after she was declared clinically brain dead. TORONTO — Ontario’s top court dismissed Wednesday a legal challenge brought by a Toronto-area family that fought to keep their daughter on life support after she was declared brain-dead. But the court of appeal declined to rule on whether accommodations for religious beliefs should be applied to the criteria used to determine that someone has died. In a unanimous decision, the appeal court said that while death is not defined in law federally or provincially in Ontario, common law considers someone dead when there is the irreversible cessation of either cardiorespiratory or brain function. However, it said there is not enough information before the court to settle the issues that form the crux of the case, including whether those criteria constitute a violation of the right to freedom of religion. The court also noted that the woman at the heart of the challenge, Taquisha McKitty, has since died according to both neurological and cardiovascular criteria, rendering the ruling moot. It said the same questions would likely emerge in other cases, and laid out guidelines on how […]
