International Mother charged after brain death of child

Press, 22 June 1978, Page 6

International Mother charged after brain death of child

NZPA St Paul (Minnesota) A St Paul woman has been arraigned on charges of ■ aggravated assault and thirddegree murder in the “brain death” of her daughter. Denise Ellison, aged 24, has been charged with the death of her daughter. Stacy, who remains in a hospital on a respirator. At a news conference yesterday, the County Attorney, Mr William Randall,,' said Stacy Ellison was! ‘ medically dead.” Her mother’s arraignment was brief and no plea was, entered. Judge Archie Ging-' old of Ramsey District Court ordered her bail reduced to- 1 $25,000.

Stacy was allegedly as-. saulted at her home on June--2 and was brought to hospi-i tai on June 3. Lectors at the: hospital declared that she i had suffered brain death last: Friday, apparently from a blow to the head. Mr Randall said he had no; plans to seek a court orderl to have the life-support I equipment unplugged. He had reviewed for the| Judge the three criteria fori b ain death enunciated by the Harvard Medical School in 1968. The three tests are unresponsiveness to normally painful stimuli, absence ‘ of spontaneous movements or breathing, and absence of reflexes. “Under all three tests

-Stacy is medically dead, or has suffered brain death,” ■iMr Randall said. Minnesota does not have a brain death law. A bill was J introduced in the 1977 legislative session declaring a person legally dead when : there is irreversible cessa■|tion of all brain functions, i The bill was not passed. Mr Randal] said there was (conclusive evidence that i brain death was final in such cases, because of medical studies. “It is not yet: accepted in legal proce-i dures,” he said. Ellison was being held in the Ramsey County Jail on $50,000 bond after spending the week-end in a psychiatric ward.