Conservative Jews battle hospital over life of brain-dead child

The Orthodox Jewish parents of a boy whom doctors have ruled "brain-dead" are fighting in court to keep him on life support, arguing that their religion considers him still alive.

Doctors at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington want to end treatment for Motl Brody, 12, whom they declared deceased Wednesday after brain cancer left him with no brain activity, the hospital's lawyer Kenneth Rosenau told AFP.

But Brody's conservative Jewish parents, saying their religion does not define death in that way, are fighting to keep Motl on life-sustaining equipment in the hospital's intensive care unit, their lawyer Jeffrey Zuckerman said.

"The legal issue is this: the parents are deeply religious people and in their religious belief a person is dead when their heart and lungs stop," Zuckerman said.

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