Judge Rules Hospital Must Keep Comatose Man Alive

Comatose firefighter Paul E. Brophy must be kept alive with food and water supplied through a tube in his stomach despite his wife’s claim that he does not want to live, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Probate Court Judge David H. Kopelman found the state is “morally obligated to sustain the life of an ill human being, even one in a persistent vegetative state.”

This tenet can only be overruled, Kopelman wrote in his 43-page decision, if the treatment causes the patient extreme discomfort or pain.

Brophy’s wife, Patricia, said her husband, who was an active outdoorsman, did not want to live as a vegetable. Kopelman agreed that was probably the case but said it did not justify starving Brophy.

Wife Plans to Appeal Decision

The family lawyer, Frank Reardon, said his client plans to take her case to the Massachusetts Court of Appeals.

“We weren’t surprised,” said Reardon, who did not see the ruling as a defeat. “It (the court) found Mr. Brophy definitely wanted to die, but the judge doesn’t believe the law allows him to make that decision.

“If you’re going to set new ground, it’s not unusual to have those issues considered by the appellate court,” he said.

Brophy, 48, lapsed into a coma in March, 1983, 10 days after suffering a burst blood vessel in his brain. He underwent surgery at a medical center in Boston but never regained consciousness.

Doctors have refused to remove the feeding tube. “The hospital views its primary function as prolonging the life of a patient,” New England Sinai Hospital lawyer Norman C. Spector said.