Estate Planning

Man at the Centre of Life Support Dispute Dies

By Hull & Hull LLP

Samuel Golubchuk, the critically-ill 84 year old Orthodox Jew, who was at the centre of a fight over whether to remove him from life support, died last week. 

Justin de Vries first blogged on the case in January and I wrote a follow up blog in February of this year.  At issue in the case were the competing views of Mr. Golubchuk’s family and his doctors over whether he should be removed from life support.  He had suffered brain damage in a fall and was unable to walk, talk, breathe, or eat on his own.

His doctors had said that there was no chance he would recover and wanted to remove him from life support.  His family opposed this, arguing that taking him off life support would offend his Orthodox beliefs and that he had not left any prior instructions indicating a desire to be taken off life support in the case of serious injury or illness.

In February, a judge directed the matter to trial. 

I have been following this case for sometime and my thoughts are with his family.  What a horrible situation for all involved.   

Thanks for reading,

Megan F. Connolly  

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on July 01, 2008 (boomark / email).