From what I recall she had been declared brain dead in Montreal, so clinically she was dead, all the machines were doing were keeping the rest of her organs alive. Brain death is not reversible She was flown to NY so that her family could see her one last time before they unplugged the machines.

Well said. My condolences on the loss of your sister.

This is exactly what I was going to say. My sister recently died and I could hardly imagine if people shoved flashing cameras into my face when going through that. I would have raged on them! I'm surprised that more paparazzi don't get severely beaten up by the families of celebrities! And the fact that anyone would question the son smiling in the photo is evidence that people are clueless and totally insensitive to how invasive this is to people (yes celebrities are also people lol). That's litteraly one second of a person's day. I laughed with my other sister on the day our sister died because of happy memories and an attempt to fight off despair. I'm glad not everyone is is so judgmental and lacking in empathy.

Seeing those paparazzi pictures makes me feel sick. They seriously have no sense of decency, common sense, or moral scruples.
We are Mods! We are Mods! We are, we are, we are Mods!

Her son is smiling in that pic. Weird.

Don't you know how to use Google?
The answer to your question can be found here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1162595/Natasha-Richardso n-kept-alive-life-support-relatives-say-final-farewells.html