By Benjamin Schuman-Stoler Earlier last week we wrote about the case of Motl Brody, the Orthodox Jewish boy from New York whose illness set off an emotional controversy. Because he couldn't perform basic unconscious functions, doctors at Children's National Medical Center proclaimed young Motl brain dead and planned to take him off life support, thereby setting off a legal, religious, and moral controversy throughout the Jewish community. The Brody family sued the hospital last week, claiming that the Jewish definition of death did not include brain death. The controversy did not play out, however, as Motl Brody's heart stopped beating this past Saturday. The Brody's attorney, Jeffery I. Zuckerman, said, "In the end, nature took its course before the judicial system ran its course." Yeshiva World News, the website that organized support for the Brodys' case, had only a...

Continue reading