The parents of a terminally ill Windsor, Ont., baby are being represented by a prominent U.S. lawyer who has ties to Sarah Palin.

CeCe Heil is connected to a Washington law firm, which has fought for right-wing Christian causes throughout the United States.

Heil said she hopes to find a hospital in the U.S. that will agree to care for Joseph Maraachli, who has been on life support for months at a hospital in London, Ont., due to a fatal neurological disease.

Doctors want to remove his breathing tube, and a judge has sided with them, but the family of the 13-month-old boy wants a tracheotomy performed so he can be taken home to die.

Palin supported Heil in her unsuccessful bid to represent the Republicans in the 5th Congressional District Congress in Tennessee in August 2010. The former Alaska governor and candidate for vice-president described the Nashville attorney, who has sought to become a member of Congress, as a "tough mama grizzly."

The Canadian lawyer who had been representing the family announced earlier in the week that he was no longer doing so. No explanation was offered, but there was speculation it had something to do with the decision on whether to appeal a Feb. 17 decision by a London judge that paved the way for Baby Joseph to be removed from life support.

The Maraachli family has received support from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, a Canadian group, and from a number of U.S. pro-life groups.

Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, told the website LifeNews.com that his organization is prepared to transport Baby Joseph and his family to a U.S. hospital if the American Center for Law and Justice can find one that will take the little boy and do the tracheotomy procedure his parents want.

“Priests for Life and other pro-life and pro-family organizations have been negotiating with hospitals across the United States for more than a week to have them agree to admit Baby Joseph,” he told LifeNews.com.

Also offering his support this weekend will be Bobby Schindler, who is flying to London from Florida. His sister, Terri Schiavo, was at the centre of a much-publicized, end-of-life battle in the U.S. five years ago.

“We’ll be joining the good people of Canada, and just doing what we can to show support for this family and let them know we’re behind them, and we’ll do what we can,” Schindler told CBC News.

He said Maraachlis should be allowed “to care for their baby properly and not be forced to have to end his life this way.”

The London Health Sciences Centre has said it is willing to pay to transfer Baby Joseph home on a breathing machine. Once home, the baby would be placed in the arms of his family before the machine is withdrawn. The family has refused that offer.