Convening a night court to determine whether a health board’s decision not to do life-prolonging surgery on a terminally ill boy would amount to culpable homicide was important for transparency, a medico-legal expert says.

At the hearing on May 8, a judge ruled that the decision did not amount to culpable homicide, finding it was in accordance with “good medical practice”.

The seven-year-old boy died the next day.

Last October, he had a feeding tube inserted because he could no longer swallow food or medication. On May 4, the tube, which provided almost all of his nutrition and hydration, became dislodged. Surgery was required to reinsert it and doctors said that without it he would die within days or weeks.

Senior doctors, nurses and the boy’s mother were unanimous that the tube should not be reinserted

Otago University law professor and medico-legal expert Mark Henaghan said the court’s decision was consistent with past cases in New Zealand and Britain.

“The courts are looking for a very strong body of medical opinion. It’s got to strongly say that in this situation it would be just cruel and inhumane to perform this operation.

“It has to be a high standard because generally speaking the medical world is about saving lives, not letting lives go.”

It was a good decision to go through the court to get the decision vetted by the judiciary, not just the child’s parent and doctors, he said. “It gives it a public accountability which is quite important. You don’t want life-and-death decisions being made behind closed doors. ”

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My response was “ Thank goodness commonsense prevailed.”  There is no moral obligation to continue supernormal ways of prolonging life.  It would be a totally different situation if he was denied natural food and medicine in the normal mode of intake.  But this was a case of halting  surgery to insert a piece of medical technology enabling him to get nourishment which caused him further pain.  As the Judge noted, “ it would prolong the dying period when death is closing in.”

My prayer is for his mother who has been torn apart in her love and care and concern.    She commented how you always want the best for your children. And during this terrible illness  her every breath has been dedicated to them

“Out of love,  you want them with you.  Out of love you want their pain gone.”  I pray she will receive the love and support  she so greatly needs.

Each had before them always a greater good namely offering a new way of living to each of the sisters; this greater good no doubt was the driving force behind all they considered and guided their decision making. Altruism was the fuel that was being burnt!, and long into the night! 32 hours for the entire operation.

My question I hold is what would happen if a similar kind of altruism burned during all those International Committees and Conventions and Convocations and Delegations etc when groups from around the world meet to discuss climate change, world poverty and disease, unfair agricultural sanctions? What would happen I wonder if all the pharmaceutical companies rather than competing for “their” answer to AIDS (and of course the huge financial windfall) actually pooled their knowledge and clinical trials? I suspect there would be an answer to AIDS within a very short time. I concede, I am no scientist, however I do know that greed and power do not live so comfortably with altruism.

Children are born with a huge potential for learning and becoming fully alive as Jesus promised. However, during the first three years of life, if conditions are not good enough (I do not think they need to be perfect!), then the child’s brain does not develop physically to its maximum and poor patterns of relating and acting are set in place which follow the child through life.

Physical nutrition is important but equally so is emotional, mental and spiritual nutrition. Parents carry a huge responsibility in bringing their children to adulthood. We as a Catholic community can assist them greatly by our attitudes and our practical support.  The value of a free baby sit, a smile in the supermarket when a tantrum is threatening or a patient listening to parental worries all help provide a healthier climate for the development of our vulnerable children. So does prayer for the children and their families, especially within the context of the Sunday worshipping community.  Let’s practise our Christian connections!

The twins had to be separated in order to survive.  Their physical union was not compatible with the independent living necessary for human life.  And yet, we need one another.  We cannot live alone.  Our independence – to be healthy and meaningful – requires an interdependence, a connection with others and the world around us.

Having been separated physically, the twins  are now free to enjoy and develop the bonds of kinship, friendship and those that come through sharing the gifts of creation.  These are spiritual bonds that must be strengthened and maintained.  Our spiritual togetherness is the vital connection we cannot do without.  If our focus is exclusively, or even mostly on what is physical in our relationships, we will wither and die.

The connections that matter are the ones that enable us to share ourselves with others, to contribute to life around us, to develop and use our own gifts, and to draw in the beauty,  strength and wisdom that abound in creation.  Such connections bring fulfilment and ensure life goes on.  These were the connections that brought a highly skilled team together this week and enabled a surgical procedure to be so life-giving.

They were moved yesterday to a ward, where they have been watching DVDs in their cots, Chief of Surgery Leo Donnan said in a statement today, adding the girls are moving their arms and legs, smiling and making noise.“They are conscious of each other,” Donnan said. “They can see each other.”

The twins were placed in a Bangladeshi orphanage at birth and brought to Australia in 2007 by the Children First Foundation. Conjoined twins occur once in every 200,000 live births and about 35 percent survive only one day, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. They’re formed when a developing embryo starts to split into identical twins during the first few weeks after conception and stops before the process is complete, according to the center’s fact sheet.

While it is still “early days in the psychological side of their journey,” the girls are doing well, Donnan said in the statement.

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney