A judge has dismissed a family's application to keep their daughter on life support after she was declared clinically brain dead at a Toronto-area hospital.
Doctors ruled Taquisha McKitty "dead by neurological criteria" in September after she was found unconscious on a Brampton, Ont. sidewalk following a drug overdose.
McKitty's parents say her Christian faith states a person is alive as long as their heart is beating, and that her religious freedoms were infringed when doctors declared her dead based on brain function.
Judge Lucille Shaw ruled against the family today, saying that the medical determination of death cannot be subject to an individual's values and beliefs, and that keeping patients on life support after their brain had stopped working could have a significant financial impact on the health care system.
A lawyer for McKitty's family says the decision defies Canadian constitutional protections of life, security and religious freedom.
Shaw says McKitty is not protected by Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms because, as someone who was declared brain dead, McKitty is no longer considered a person under the law.
