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A girl who nine years ago was expected never to regain consciousness and was abandoned by Massachusetts welfare authorities, hospital medical staff, and the courts now watches the Disney Channel, enjoys the music of Justin Bieber and her Westfield Evangelical Free Church congregation, and tells her adoptive parents she loves them. Haleigh, now 20, is by all accounts a happy woman living surrounded by love with her siblings, her adoptive parents Keith and Becky Arnett, and other foster children the couple have taken in over the years. But Haleigh is far from typical. Once the center of a public...

Aside from the misleading claim in the article referring to my sister, Terri Schiavo, as being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS), the Boston Globe did a wonderful follow-up story on Haleigh Poutre’s tragic situation.Back in 2006, Haleigh made national news when her stepfather beat her into a coma. It was just a short time subsequent to this act of violence that her doctors decided this 13-year old had zero chance to recover and her legal guardian went to the courts for permission to remove Haleigh’s life sustaining care.In fact, if Haleigh would have happened to survive the removal of...

WESTFIELD — The minister winds up his welcome to some 400 people, and soon lyrics flash karaoke-like on a large screen. A spirited Christian pop song, “Blessed be Your Name,” fills the Westfield Evangelical Free Church. In the back row, a young woman, sitting in a wheelchair next to her adoptive parents, lights up. Though she can’t read all the words, she sways to the music and claps her hands, the nails painted pink with white polka dots. She loves cheerful tunes and a crowd, and on this Sunday, she has both. Keith and Becky Arnett could have predicted that...

Video shows Haleigh Poutre writing, feeding self It is oft said that a society is judged by how it treats its weakest members. (Humans only. Animals are not members of the moral community. Their proper care is an important ethical issue, but irrelevant to this post.)  And there are no weaker among us than those who experience profound cognitive disability.Former Governor Mitt Romney is taking some heat for the scandalous attempt made during his governorship, by Massachusetts bureaucrats, to dehydrate a then unconscious 11 year-old child abuse victim, named Haleigh Poutre, to death.  (I covered her case extensively here at...

During the CNN Republican debate in June, Mitt Romney — pressed on his switch from pro-choice to pro-life by Rick Santorum- declared: "I believe in the sanctity of life from the very beginning until the very end." Romney has spent much of the last two presidential campaigns defending his evolving positions on abortion. But his stance on end-of-life issues, another perennial hot-button issue with the party's conservative base, has been far less scrutinized. But Romney does have a history on the issue, and a controversial one at that. In 2005, aides to then-Massachusetts Gov. Romney pressed vigorously in court for...

Haleigh was being given food and water through a feeding and hydration tube. A year later, the Massachusetts Department of Social Services filed a legal motion to remove it. They cited the medical finding of “PVS”. Her stepfather then sued to prevent the removal of the assistance. There was speculation in some sources that he did this to avoid criminal charges for murder. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that the assistance could be removed in a controversial ruling. One day after the ruling, Haleigh surprised all of her caregivers by breathing without the need for assistance and showing signs...

BOSTON, March 6, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Haleigh Poutre, now 14, was so brutally beaten more than two years ago by her adoptive parents, that she was left in a coma from which she was never expected to revive. However, she may now be well enough to testify against the man accused of assaulting her.Haleigh has spent the last two years recovering at the Franciscan Hospital for Children near Boston. On Sept. 11, 2005, Haleigh was taken to hospital in "an unresponsive state", according to court documents. "Haleigh had both old and new bruises, old and new open cuts, several...

Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Haleigh Poutre was the victim of child abuse and was nearly killed via euthanasia when Massachusetts officials gave up on her after she entered a coma. Now Poutre, once termed "brain dead" by doctors, continues to improve and is speaking a few words, her grandmother says. Sandra Sudyka, the girl's biological grandmother, is no longer allowed to visit her granddaughter and now says she is ready to speak to the media about Poutre's condition. She told The Republican newspaper that she last saw Poutre on July 18 but indicated she was "doing well." "She was bright-eyed...

Charlie Crist Let My Daughter Die by Robert Schindler, Sr. Posted Jul 31, 2006 As most Americans know, on March 31, 2005, my daughter, Terri Schindler Schiavo died of starvation and thirst after having her feeding tube removed by court order. The sad chain of events that concluded with Terri’s death ignited a media firestorm nationally and internationally. What few saw or heard was the callous inaction of aspiring governor Charlie Crist. Florida Atty. Gen. Charlie Crist let my daughter die. He had it within his authority to save her life, but he turned a blind eye to her suffering....

HOLYOKE, Mass. -- Haleigh Poutre's birth mother is expected to file a court motion seeking more of a say in her daughter's medical care. Allison Avrett plans to appear in Holyoke Juvenile Court on Wednesday. Haleigh, 12, has been hospitalized since police say her adoptive mother and stepfather severely beat her in September. About a week after taking custody of the Westfield girl in September, the Department of Social Services sought permission to remove her from life support.

Girl eats and moves; mother seeks new role By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff | March 5, 2006 A nurse told the mother of Haleigh Poutre during a hospital visit on Tuesday that the severely beaten Westfield girl, whom officials once wanted to let die, has been able to eat scrambled eggs and cream of wheat, and has tapped out drum rhythms during physical therapy, according to the mother's lawyer. But it is unclear when Poutre began eating solid food, and how often she does so. A Department of Social Services worker, who was monitoring the 15-minute visit, has told the...

Haleigh turns 12 today Friday, February 24, 2006By GEORGE GRAHAMggraham@repub.com WESTFIELD - Haleigh Poutre, who had been hospitalized in September in what doctors called a "persistent vegetative state," turns 12 today. But the Westfield girl, who is now said to be responding to simple yes and no questions and expressing emotions, will be spending her birthday without the presence of her biological mother who has been denied permission by the state to visit her at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Boston today. "Tomorrow is Haleigh's birthday and from what I can tell, there is going to be nobody in her...

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- The state Department of Social Services wanted permission to remove Haleigh Poutre from life support eight days after the 11-year-old girl was hospitalized with severe brain injuries allegedly caused by her adoptive mother and stepfather. According to court documents released Monday by the state's Supreme Judicial Court, DSS officials won temporary custody of Haleigh on Sept. 13, two days after the comatose girl was brought to Baystate Medical Center. Six days later, DSS asked a Juvenile Court judge to allow the agency to let Haleigh die. The information was made public following the efforts of two newspapers...

The case of Haleigh Poutre, the battered child at the center of a legal and medical dispute in Massachusetts, is so horrific as to evoke medieval tableaux of hell. This 11-year-old girl was failed by all the adults in her life, from her biological and adoptive families to social workers and medical professionals. Haleigh, who seems to be emerging from her four-month-long coma and has been moved from intensive care to a rehab center, would have been dead today if the stepfather charged in her near-fatal beating had not fought (most likely for self-interested reasons) to keep her alive. This...

In the court (and courts) of life and death, a little 11-year-old Massachusetts girl named Haleigh Poutre could be the next Terri Schiavo. For those who have not heard the tragic story, Haleigh was beaten nearly to death last September, allegedly by her adoptive mother and stepfather. The beating left her unconscious and barely clinging to life. Within a week or so of the beating, her doctors had written her off. They apparently told Haleigh's court-appointed guardian, Harry Spence, that she was "virtually brain dead." Even though he had never visited her, Spence quickly went to court seeking permission to...

On Tuesday, Spence said, he went to Haleigh's room at Baystate and noticed a quiet brown-haired girl lying in bed. In front of her, he said, there were three objects: a yellow duck, a Curious George stuffed animal, and a yellow block. He said a DSS social worker accompanied him, and she said, ''Haleigh, this is Harry." ''Give him the yellow duck," the social worker said, according to Spence's recollection. Haleigh picked up the yellow duck, he said. ''Where's Curious George?" the social worker asked Haleigh. Haleigh then picked up the stuffed animal, Spence said. ''It's an astounding case," he...

Haleigh Poutre moved to rehab facilitySPRINGFIELD, Mass. A new development today in the case of Haleigh Poutre (HAY'-lee POOT'-Rah), the eleven-year-old Westfield girl who was close to being removed from life support after she was allegedly beaten into a coma.Officials from the state Department of Social Services say Haleigh has been moved from Baystate Medical Center in Springfield to a rehabilitation facility at an undisclosed location in Massachusetts.The move comes after D-S-S received a second opinion on the girl's medical condition from outside doctors. She was hospitalized in September with a seriously injured brain stem, and her doctors at the...

Court Favors Euthanasia for Massachusetts Girl, Though She's Doing Better by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor January 19, 2006 Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- The Massachusetts state Supreme Court has ruled that a hospital can end the life of a badly abused 11 year-old girl, even though she is doing better and beginning to respond to stimuli. Haleigh Poutre was abused by her birthmother and placed in a foster care home with her adoptive mother and stepfather. The allegedly beat her nearly to death with a baseball bat, in what left Poutre in a comatose state. Poutre was placed in state custody...

Save Haleigh By Michelle MalkinJan 25, 2006 I have a question for the hordes of bleeding-heart Hollywood stars who joined the "Save Tookie" brigade, who bowed their heads in prayer with ex-Crip gangster Snoop Dogg and the Rev. Jesse Jackson and pleaded to protect convicted Death Row murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams, and who lobbied so hard for the government to err on the side of life.Where are you now?In Boston, an innocent girl was sentenced to death by the state. Her name is Haleigh Poutre. Last fall, she was hospitalized after her stepfather allegedly burned her and beat her unconscious...

Governor Mitt Romney is calling for an independent review of the case surrounding a comatose Westfield girl at the center of a life support dispute. 11-year-old Haleigh Poutre has been hospitalized since September. Prosecutors say she was beaten into a coma by her adoptive mother and stepfather. Last week, the state's highest court gave the Department of Social Services the right to remove Haleigh from life support. Only days later, however, officials said the girl had been removed from a ventilator and was breathing on her own. DSS Commissioner Harry Spence said Friday that he could not discuss Haleigh's medical...