• Hospital Seeks to Pull Plug on Brain-Dead Boy, 12

The family of a 12-year-old boy who is brain dead is fighting a hospital's attempt to have him taken off life support, arguing that their faith does not define death as the cessation of brain function alone.The boy's parents, who are Orthodox Jews, have retained a lawyer who says the boy's circulatory and respiratory systems are functioning, although with mechanical and other assistance.Motl Brody of Brooklyn, N.Y., was diagnosed with severe brain cancer and has been at Children's National Medical Center for six months. Doctors pronounced him dead Tuesday after tests found no brain activity.