Danger Zone - (Haleigh Poutre)

National Review ^ | February 01, 2006 | Wesley J, Smith

[Ohioan from Florida]

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 remove her respirator and feeding tube. The court agreed, a decision affirmed recently by the supreme court of Massachusetts.

And so, no doubt with the best of intentions, a little girl who had already suffered so much was stripped by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of even the chance to fight to stay alive. If she didn't stop breathing when the respirator was removed, which doctors expected, she would slowly dehydrate to death.

Close Call

Then came the unexpected:

[syriacus]

Cranford said you can call it "killing."

I imagine that would mean that it is okay with Cranford if you call Radical Euthanasiacists "killers."

Although the Radical Euthanasiacists aren't terrorists, and they don't need to use explosives, they are as dedicated to their cause of bringing death to innocent persons as terrorists are,

It might take voters a while to wake up and figure out euthanasia is no more "good" than "eugenics" was "good".

[freema]

Thanks. I didn't know if anyone was aware of this programming.

[syriacus]

"Culling" is to be used for herds of animals, not for humans.

[T'wit]

Better put a "k" in there to keep the word from getting too confusing. Politics but politicking. Frolic but frolicked, frolicker, frolicking and so on.

Future entry in Webster's Dictionary: "Bioethics, n. (bioethicker, bioethicking) -- Academic-led movement to legalize murder for fun and profit."

[Ohioan from Florida]

I couldn't agree more! The government is already in the middle of all this, they haven't just started stepping in recently. Each state has agencies they use to check on potentially abusive situations and law enforcement is expected to be called in to assist when necessary, What good are any of these arms of government if they don't do the jobs they are supposed to do? Do we have to wait for tragedies (Haleigh is but one example) to get them to clean up their acts?

Your whole post was very well thought out and written.

[T'wit]

>> "Culling" is to be used for herds of animals, not for humans.

Ha! Lots of people have culled feet or culled hands or culled hearts! I'b god a culled in the nos rot gnaw.

[8mmMauser]

That way bioethickerer is worse than just bioethicker. That is an EU-phemism acceptable for the liberals who are into bio and are thick.

I hate State Sponsored Bioethick

[T'wit]

>> "I really would like to die the slowest most painful death you can think of..."

Yes! Yes! That is EXACTLY what the step-father remembered Haleigh saying in a casual conversation when she was 4. He had forgotten it for eight years, but remembered just barely in time for his date in court. His lawyer helped him.

The judge says, convivially, "I believe you, but the law says that I need more than your word for this. Did anybody else hear Haleigh say she wants to die a drawn-out, sadistic, horrifying death after being beaten, burned with cigarettes, scalded in hot water, molested, burned with acid, and smashed repeatedly with a baseball bat?"

Lo! That afternoon, two in-laws of friends of cousins of DSS workers -- in affidavits hastily wired from the Maldive Islands -- said that they too had heard Haleigh beg for the cruellest death possible.

"Done!" said the judge, flashing his trademark boyish smile. "I rule that this is 'CLEAR AND CONVINCING EVIDENCE' that Haleigh personally handed the baseball bat to her stepdad and pointed to spots where she wanted to be clubbed."

[T'wit]

I'm sure other PC expressions will come to mind. I look for legislation authorizing No-Fault Auschwitz-ization of Guardian-Designated Exit Patients at the Mengele Gardens Hospice.

[8mmMauser]

The new political position at the Department of Terminal Affairs, Chief of Exit Protocol

[Hildy]

I think I'm defining "soul" differently than one would conventionally define "soul." There was a post when this whole thing was going on that worded it perfectly. I'm going to see if I can find it for you. The poster stated it perfectly. This is a touchy subject, and I don't want to get into a big fight here. This is a subject that has hard feelings on both sides. But I'm glad we're all talking about death. It's something our Society just refused to discuss.

[Hildy]

The time around the death of a loved one is a very tender and emotional time that Gods Holy Spirit can use to bring loved ones to the Saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Says you. But with all due respect, not all of us believe that.

[8mmMauser]

As a reminder, Michelle Malkin has done much to bring light to the plight of Haleigh.

[GrandEagle]

not all of us believe that
Very true - just stating my opinion.

Cordially,
GE

[syriacus]

I watched just enough of Countdown last night to catch some scenes from tonight's show.

The little I saw of Michael's comments highlighted his typical doublespeak...in which he tries to have things both ways, and ends up contradicting himself.

While she was alive, pro-Terri folks mentioned that she needed corrective lenses to see. Common sense says that her need for corrective lenses would handicap her performance on neurological exams where she was asked to follow something smallish, like a doctor's finger, with her eyes.

After Terri's death Michael drags out the "vision thing."

All of a sudden ...Terri's poor vision is of concern to Michael.

Michael now says the autopsy shows Terri was cortically blind, and that a doctor he chose was right in saying, before her death, that she was blind*

Question #1 : Isn't Michael's contention that she was blind disproven by Cranford's video, which shows Terri's eyes following a balloon several times.

Her eyes do follow a balloon on three separate occasions, surprising even a doctor selected by her husband, Michael Schiavo.

****Attention, Michael Schiavo:
in America, even blind people have a right to live!!****

Question #2. Weren't the pro-Terri people more correct than Michael's doctor, in saying Terri could see, but needed her glasses? After all, she could see a large shiny, balloon.

I also hope that Olbermann questions Michael's inference that the autopsy showed Terri's brain was too small for her to "deserve" life.

Aren't PVS diagnoses better made by examining live patients, rather than by taking apart dead bodies of people who have been dehydrated for 13 day?

Terri was killed because it is un-PC to make sure that our sickest brothers and sisters get the treatment they deserve.

Terri was killed because a Florida statute, written not so long ago, changed the classification of feeding tubes.

It's time to revisit that statute.

[amdgmary]

The MSNBC interview with Schiavo was aired last night.

Click on the following link. Look on the right hand side of the site for "Video - MSNBC" (scroll towards the bottom of the screen), then click on "Michael Schiavo." This will pull up the interview.

Schiavo looks "spaced-out. His comments are typical "Schiavo."

[amdgmary]

Transcript of Michael Schiavo on the Keith Olbermann show (Countdown with Keith Olbermann). The rest of the interview will be aired tonight at 8pm EST.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Updated: 9:22 a.m. ET Feb. 2, 2006

Guests: Michael Schiavo, Richard Wolffe, Melanie Lomax, Mo Rocca

KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST: Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?

Michael Schiavo, 10 months later, a former Republican now forming a political action committee, a PAC, to challenge the politicians who involved themselves in the life and death of his wife, Terri.

MICHAEL SCHIAVO, TERRI SCHIAVO‘S HUSBAND: This should not have happened, Keith. These politicians should not knocked on my door.

Our fourth story on the COUNTDOWN, the man who felt the most but said the least, Michael Schiavo, Terri Schiavo‘s husband. He and I spoke this morning. We‘ll be bringing you our conversation at length tomorrow night here on COUNTDOWN. Tonight, a preview, and some perspective.

Terri Schiavo collapsed at home in 1990. After years of attempts at rehabilitation, she still remained in what doctors had diagnosed repeatedly as a persistent vegetative state. Her husband, Michael, said she never wanted to be kept alive artificially and filed a petition to have her feeding tube removed.

Her family said she did want to be kept alive, and they went to court for seven years, trying to keep the feeding tube in.

When the courts finally decided to allow Michael Schiavo to remove his wife‘s tube, hundreds of people gathered in protest outside and hospice, some even getting symbolically arrested trying to bring her water.

But it was the politicians, led by then-House majority leader Tom DeLay in the House, along with the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, and by the governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, and his brother, the president, who made all this a rallying cry for several movements, including the pro-life movement, bringing the case to Congress to pass a bill aimed at an 11th-hour attempt to force the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo‘s feeding tube.

And, as her husband told me in an exclusive interview, their interference is the reason he has now started his own political action committee, named Terri‘s PAC, after his wife, dedicated to exposing the people he says used this tragedy for their own political agenda.

SCHIAVO: This should not have happened, Keith. These politicians should not knocked on my door. And I‘m sure you would feel the same way if it was you, sitting there making a personal decision about your loved one and your own personal life, and you have these people that never even met you, never even knew you, that all of a sudden are knocking on your door saying, You can‘t do this.

It‘s not right. This is America.

OLBERMANN: But you say knocking on the door, and yet they didn‘t really knock on the door, they sort of just came through the wall, didn‘t they?

SCHIAVO: Exactly. Well, that‘s a better statement.

LBERMANN: If they had knocked on the door...

SCHIAVO: No knocking, they just walked right in.

OLBERMANN: Yes, if they had knocked on the door, if literally one of them had said, I want to meet you, and I want to come see her, what would you have said?

SCHIAVO: Come on down. I invited the president. I invited Governor Bush. Come down, meet me. Come down and ask Terri, Here, Terri, shake my hand. She wouldn‘t have done it. Terri, can you look at me for a while and talk to me? She wouldn‘t have done it.

The autopsy has proved that. Terri was cortically blind, something that has been said in courts for years. Dr. Cranford was the first neurologist to sit there and say she was cortically blind. And the autopsy proved that. Terri was blind. Terri couldn‘t talk. She couldn‘t swallow. The autopsy proved that. Terri‘s brain was half the size of the—a normal brain. That‘s how much it had shrunk.

OLBERMANN: My exclusive interview with Michael Schiavo, tomorrow night here on COUNTDOWN, 8:00 and midnight Eastern, 5:00 and 9:00 p.m. Pacific.

[amdgmary]

Ping to #157 for the transcript with Schiavo and Keith Olbermann

[woollyone]

Speaking as a man who was conceived to an unwed mother who lived in Denmark, with it's free medical "care", I, like many of us, was only one poor choice away from being murdered.

Whenever our actions can be viewed as unfavorable, to desensitize the brutality of the actions, to brain wash the masses, and to ease our burdened consciences, we have to change the terms. Often, the changes are no more than pathetic insults.

"Abortion"...the action of stopping something...stopping a life.

"Fetus"...Latin for an unborn baby...mostly used to describe an unborn baby human being...a baby that is unwanted. Then there's the "cancerous blob of cells (tissue)" label, which is so revolting that the term should only be used to describe a human being who would actually use it to describe a baby.

"Gay"...happy, festive, joyful...well, it used to mean that...now it is the term claimed by homosexuals...sodomites. How ironic (evil, actually) is it that one of the most spiritually broken segments of our culture have claimed for themselves a term that means "joyful". Keep drinking the Kool-Aid...maybe one day Truth will actually penetrate their souls.

The rainbow...God's promise that He would never again destroy the world by flood (after He saw the sins of SODOM!...the sodomites, mind you!...now the rainbow has become the self claimed representation of the victory of the homosexuals. How in-God's-face this must be to Him.

"Pride"...though pride can be a good thing, as in taking pride in doing a good job, it is usually a horrible personal attribute. A declaration of self-righteousness. Gay pride...where to begin with THAT one!

"affair"...an event...oops...not any more...now it is used by those who commit adultery and violate the voluntary, life-long promises made to another human being..."hey, it was just an affair dontchaknow!"

"choice"...no...they had to change the terms...the terms ARE life or death for the unborn baby. The choice is whether the mother loves life more than death, whether and innocent should be brutally executed because of the sins of others.

So, when your wife finally becomes pregnant after years of wanting a baby, maybe she'll run into the room with such overwhelming joy at the news...she'll raise her arms as she runs toward her husband to give him a tearful embrace at their new-found good fortune. She'll exclaim; "Honey, I have great news...we're going to have a cancerous blob of tissue...yep...that's right! We're gonna have a FETUS!!! Aren't you excited!?!

Yes, it is murder. What kind of nation have we become that we slaughter our unborn children in their mother's wombs. Obviously rhetorical question there.

Have we thanked the Lord today, that our mom loved life, loved us, more than she loved death...more than she loved herself? Now is as good a time as ever...for me too.

thanks for letting me rant...baaaa

[syriacus]

But I'm glad we're all talking about death. It's something our Society just refused to discuss.

You're right

Although it's true that people had been discussing death for ages....

All of a sudden public discourse about death is a thing to be feared, because it has "Private: family matter only" stamped all over it. Talk about censorship!!

Medical advances have made it necessary to update our discussions, open a few closets labelled "private" which have skeletons in them, ask new questions.

I find it puzzling that one of the biggest "medical advances" seems to be the reclassification of "feeding" as medical care. That seems like a step backwards.

"PC speak" would have new mothers say
It's a thrill to rock and "medical care" my baby as I sing to him.

Well, it's getting near noon. I wonder if I should get my "Grilled McMedication" at McDonald's drive-thru or if I should check to see if there is anything for lunch in my bathroom medicine cabinet.

On second thought, maybe I can borrow one of my mother's bottles of Ensure. It sure is convenient, that I don't have to replace it by going all the way to a pharmacy!! It's available in the Health and beauty aids aisle in my local grocery store. (Didn't Terri used to be given something like Ensure?)

I hate to miss a meal. I imagine I'm just like the folks who starved and dehydrated Terri, in that way.