Posted on 09/22/2006 8:54:28 AM PDT by presidio9
In a case of "Whose life is it anyway?" a state appeals court ruled yesterday that a mentally handicapped woman has no say over whether she should be kept alive on life support. In the unanimous decision, a five-judge panel ruled that the 26-year-old - who says she wants to be kept on life support in the event she's felled by illness or an accident - isn't competent to make that decision. Instead, her mother, who is her legal guardian, gets to make the call - and she doesn't want her daughter on life support.
A lawyer for the woman, identified only as Chantel R., did not return a call for comment. The decision says the woman has an IQ of 52, about the mental capacity of a 7-year-old, "but otherwise
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Death culture ping.
Is there anything more beautiful than a mother's unconditional love?
Just disgusting.
So "seven year olds" aren't deemed worthy of knowing if they want to live, hmmm?
Is that what this "esteemed" panel is saying?
Seems so to me. Disgusting.
If this is the standard, half of the posters at DU could be affected by this ruling
If the court is correct that she is not competent, she should just kill her mom. They can’t hold her responsible.
Hmmm, does this mean children up to age of 7 can't be trusted to want to live?
Paging Peter Singer.
notdeadyet.org
You wait. The pro-abortion gang will jump on this as grounds for pro-choice.
That is certainly what it sounds like to me. Disgusting. Guess they really will go after the kids (not just the babies) next.
The slippery slope just got a little steeper.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Children and adults with legal guardians have only very limited civil rights. In essense, the law regards them as "chattels", or, essentially, slaves.
For example, a child can be incarcerated in a psychiatric institution involuntarily, with no right to habeus corpus, that is, a reason for them to be put in hospital. This is very common with "problem children", and the institution will certify them "mentally ill" until their insurance, or their parents' money, runs out. Then they will miraculously recover and be released. This is an easy way for the wealthy, especially, who have children, then decide they don't like them, to shut them away until they are 18 or 21 years old, depending on the State.
Parents and guardians can force, or deny, most other forms of medical care; choice and degree of religion or none that the child is exposed to; schooling and education to a great degree.
They have complete control over the childrens' money and other assets of value. Parents or guardians usually can coerce the child to give them power of attorney, so often support trusts given to a child by someone else cannot be modified until the child is legally an adult. Otherwise such trusts would commonly be emptied by their parent or guardian and the child would be left with nothing.
The one thing a child can do, but must be done proactively or the parent/guardian can usually prevent it, is to appear before a judge and ask for "emancipation" from their parent/guardian. Usually this is only granted if they can prove to the judge that the parents/guardians are unfit as parents, engage in unlawful or abusive behavior, or are mismanaging the child's assets.
This is a two-way street, however, and the parents can just as easily emancipate the child.
One common trick by parents/guardians is to kick the child out of their home, then contact the police and claim the child is a runaway. The child is then arrested and held for days, and sometimes criminally charged. This establishes that they are "troublemakers", and makes further parental abuse possible.
Err on the side of life. Why is this such a tough concept!
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This is sickening, a 26 year old woman wants to live, but her mother wants her to die and the judge is siding with the mother.
Culture of Death Ping
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