Case of Jesse Koochin

Jesse Steven Koochin (April 15, 1998 – November 19, 2004) was a 6-year-old American boy 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.

Biography Jesse Koochin was born in Dunedin, Florida

Cancer diagnosis and treatment Shortly after his sixth birthday, Jesse was diagnosed with an "inoperable and incurable" brain tumor— medulloblastoma with metastasis to the brain and spine—on April 19, 2004. His parents sought holistic treatment in three states, including Georgia, where they agreed to try standard radiation treatment as his condition worsened. However, Jesse's condition was determined to be too advanced for radiation or chemotherapy, so his parents took him to another alternative clinic in Mexico for treatment. His parents claimed he improved in Mexico from the alternative treatment. The Mexican treatment included "injecting him with live cells from the embryo of a blue shark and placing an ointment on his head, which his father described as killing and pulling out the tumors." Koochin'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.