Jesse Koochin

Who was Jesse Koochin?

Jesse Koochin was a 6-year-old boy from Utah who became the center of a legal battle between his parents, Steve and Gayle Koochin, and Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

Jesse was diagnosed with an "inoperable and incurable" brain tumor in 2004. He had been undergoing care at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City since September 15, 2004 when “his tumor pushed his brain stem down through the skull." Subsequently, two physicians independently determined that the child was "brain dead" and informed his parents that they would order life support removed within twenty-four hours. However, the parents rejected the hospital’s definition of death. Instead, relying on traditional notions of cardiopulmonary death, they obtained a restraining order to keep Jesse on a ventilator. Later, they removed the brain-dead child from the hospital. Jesse's heart ultimately stopped beating on November 19, 2004.

The landmark case was the first documented instance in the United States in which parents attempted to opt out of legally accepted standards of death.