Father testifies in court fight to keep daughter on life support
BRAMPTON, Ont. — A Toronto-area man waging a legal battle to keep his 27-year-old daughter on life support after she was declared brain dead told an Ontario court Friday that he never had the chance to tell her doctors about her religious beliefs.
Stanley Stewart acknowledged that he never raised religious objections to brain death in speaking with doctors or in a series of affidavits he filed with the court in his fight to have his daughter’s death certificate revoked.
While he could not remember ever explicitly discussing Taquisha McKitty’s wishes in case she was deemed brain dead, Stewart told a Brampton, Ont., court he knows his daughter believed a person is alive as long as their heart still beats because that’s what he taught her growing up.
“I do not believe that (brain death) is a true death, that is not my family’s faith,” he said during cross-examination.