Posted on 09/05/2006 4:45:45 AM PDT by 8mmMauser
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 and smiling. She is always responsive to us," Sudyka explained.
Department of Social Services had asked Sudyka not to talk with reporters about Haleigh, but since they will no longer allow her and Haleigh's biological mother, Allison Avrett, to visit the 12 year-old, she said she's going to talk to the media.
"I decided since they broke the deal, I am going to talk. People should know how well she is doing," Sudyka told the newspaper.
"They don't want people to know how she is doing after they wanted to pull the plug," Sudyka said.
DSS spokeswoman Denise Monteiro declined an interview with The Republican but said that the visiting privileges have been suspended, not terminated.
Haleigh first began speaking in June, her grandmother told the newspaper.
"I was saying to her 'I love you,' and she was trying to say 'love' and it came out as a vibration...'ove,'" Sudyka said.
Sudyka, who is working with an attorney to adopt the girl, said she has said hello, responds to comments and questions, speaks nonverbally and is able to write her name. Haleigh can't walk and is confined to a wheelchair.
Avrett, Poutre's biological mother, lost custody of her daughter after physically abusing her. Poutre was put into a foster home where her adoptive parents also abused her. Her adopted mother committed suicide after abusing Poutre so much she had to be hospitalized.
DSS took Poutre into custody and when she appeared to slip into a coma, the agency asked the state Supreme Court for permission to take her life. That's when Poutre began responding.
Poutre has been receiving physical, speech and occupational therapy since January 26 at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton.
Gov. Mitt Romney appointed a commission to look into how the state failed to properly handle the girl's case.
8mm
(Original Ohioan from Florida's ping list, update to September 2.)
Ping.
Thanks for the update.
Huh? To my knowledge while physician-assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, euthanasia is illegal in all US states. Am I missing something??
They just use a different name or term in other states. In Texas for example, it falls under the Futile Care law and in Florida, Terri Schiavo set the example for being killed legally, like it or not, all in the name of her supposedly wishing to be dehydrated to death for thirteen days.
My own Mom died in Oregon and I am still not sure if she weren't helped along, probably with legal sanctions.
8mm
It maybe be illegal but it happens.
Technically illegal, but difficult to prove in a court of law if both the so-called physicians and the so-called family conspire together to murder the helpless individual in question.
Last March (?), I sent Haleigh a birthday card. It had the kind of picture on it that would make a little girl smile -- a big silly elephant in a funny pose. Maybe somebody tucked it away for her and she'll see it when she gets better. (I can hope, can't I?) She WILL get better, with reasonable care and family love. Say a prayer for Haleigh, she's not safe yet.
thanks for the PING. It is amazing to know how this poor child is doing! Great news she is coming around. I hope she makes more recovery and is able to live a normal life someday soon.
Wideawake's comment was correct, but you can also look at it as a futile care case. Somebody has to make the decision to terminate medical care when the patient is beyond help and hope. The Massachusetts DSS, having custody, went to court to do just that. As discussed in other threads, we think they had ulterior motives for doing so, and at the very least, were extremely careless about verifying the futility of Haleigh's condition. In fact, the girl had snapped out of her comatose condition and was improving and responsive before the DSS went to court to stop treating her. It is appalling that they petitioned the court to kill her at that point.
Incidentally, children have a far better chance to recover from brain injuries than adults. It is normal to give them extra time and therapy, not to pull the plug in a hurry.
And that's the problem; people are too quick on the draw. Why are they so eager to kill people? Don't they realize it could be THEM next time?
I am sorry about your mother and certainly hope she was treated with the respect she and your family deserve.
I am not the one watering down the word, "euthanasia". The ones who are implementing euthanasia are watering it down, using softer terms that sell. But the effect is just the same. In the case of Haleigh, the officials wanted to euthanize her plain and simple. In the case of Andrea Clark in Texas the authorities wanted to euthanize her despite protests to the contrary and they used the softer term, "futile care" as their tool. Rather than interpret the term "futile" as treatment which would not help, they interpreted the life of Andrea as futile. That is how we are seeing them work.
A review of past discussions of Haleigh's dilemma makes clear the DSS intent and attempts to cover up the true nature of their deeds.
There is a difference between futile care, and futile lives. DSS determined that Haleigh's life was futile. There was nothing futile about her care. It was doing what it was designed to do. And DSS recognized this. What they didn't recognize was that Haleigh has as much right to live as anyone else. They intended to euthanize her, by depriving her of food and water, and giving her morphine. That is euthanasia.
There is such a thing as futile care. The state attempted to say that the care of this girl was futile as she was in a vegetative state from which she would never recover. Ends up that she was not, so in this case the care was not futile. You can't conclude from this that such care is never futile. The withdrawal of futile care is not euthanasia.
Futile care is that which is not helping the patient. Stopping all care because a doctor thinks one's quality of life isn't worthy of care is murder.
"Euthanasia" is itself a euphemism coined to sell murder.
It usually boils down to money. The common case is saving the cost of care, especially the heavy costs typical for people near the end of their lives. Former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm stated the matter plainly, saying that seniors have a DUTY to die. This kind of thinking infects all socialized medicine because in those systems, care must be rationed. It looks as if the elderly are hogging the care.
However, things don't work that way in private medical markets, which allocate resources differently.
Money plays a huge role in organ transplant cases (which is what I suspect was afoot in Haleigh's case). Here you not only escape the cost of care, you may make a six-figure profit selling the organs. The only trick is, you have to declare the patient brain-dead (a new definition of death invented at Harvard in the 1960s in order to make organs more accessible for transplantation).
Cases where money is not involved at all? Well, there are always a few sociopaths like Ted Bundy, Jack Kevorkian and George Felos, who kill for thrills or for the fun of it.
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