A bitter court battle is raging over whether an elderly Brooklyn woman currently on life support should continue to be kept alive – with the woman’s Orthodox Jewish family fighting to keep her on a respirator while her Roman Catholic godson argues she should be allowed to die.
Sylvia Sodden, 78, was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn but converted to Roman Catholicism when she was just 20 years old, said her godson, Joe Arrigo, 53.
“Sylvia told me she didn’t want to end up like this,” said Arrigo, a fellow Catholic who Sodden appointed as her health care proxy in 2011.
“I don’t see how they can impose their religion on her. She hasn’t been Jewish in 58 years!” thundered Arrigo.
Sodden’s sister Esther Feigenbaum filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to become her sister’s sole health care proxy.
“It is anathema to Orthodox Jewish belief to shut down life support from a person in Ms. Sodden’s condition … to do such would be nothing short of murder,” the suit states, adding that years ago Sodden was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
“Ms. Sodden, despite her mental illnesses, remains devoted to the religion of her ancestors and her family.”
On Tuesday a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge stripped Arrigo of his role as health care proxy and gave it to Feigenbaum, citing Arrigo’s absence in court as part of the reason.
Arrigo, a Connecticut high school teacher who said he sought the advice of two priests before deciding to take Sodden off life support, said he didn’t know he was supposed to appear and vowed to fight to regain control of his beloved godmother’s healthcare decisions.
Sodden’s Orthodox Jewish family says she never converted and she must be kept alive in accordance with Jewish law.
“She was raised Jewish and always interacted with her family as a Jew in a very positive manner,” said Sodden nephew Menashe Shapiro, 39.
Sodden became Arrigo’s godmother after Sodden and Arrigo’s mother became friends working for a life insurance company on 14th Street in the 1950s.
“She was definitely very good Catholic people,” said Gloria Arrigo, 84, who said she attended Sodden’s Christmas Day 1957 baptism at St. Francis Xavier on 16th Street.
“When she prayed for something, it always seemed to happen in the right way.”
The two sides disagree over Sodden’s mental state – with Arrigo claiming she is in “a vegetative state” and Feigenbaum saying she is a “living conscious adult with a right to remain living.”