Lauren Richardson Becomes Next Terri Schiavo as Parents Debate Euthanasia (Delaware)

LifeNews ^ | 2/1/2008 | Steven Ertelt

[Pyro7480]

A Delaware woman has become the next Terri Schiavo as her parents engage in a massive legal and philosophical debate about whether to subject her to euthanasia. Richardson is a 23-year-old woman who overdosed on heroin in August 2006 while she was three months pregnant with a baby girl.

Doctors kept Lauren on life support until she delivered her baby in February 2007. Shortly thereafter, her parents began a fight that is reminiscent of the battle over Terri's life and death.

As in the Terri Schiavo case, physicians have been quick to label Lauren as having a persistent vegetative state -- something Terri's family called dehumanizing and medically inaccurate as patients have recovered from it.

Edith Towers, Lauren's mother, wants to remove her feeding tube and starve and dehydrate her to death in the same manner that Michael Schiavo subjected Terri.

Towers claims Lauren would never have wanted to live as a permanently disabled person, but Lauren, as with Terri, did not have a living will or other advance directive spelling out her treatment wishes. She claims Lauren told her during Terri's battle that she would not want to live like her.

On the other side is Randy Richardson, Lauren's father is fighting to save her life and wants to be appointed as her guardian to ensure she receives appropriate medical care and treatment.

"She's committed no crime and doesn't deserve to have this death imposed on her," Richardson told the News Journal newspaper on Wednesday. "We just want to give her a chance."

Lauren no longer uses a ventilator or other breathing apparatus and is not on artificial life support -- something Randy contends is showing progress.

Towers is winning the legal battle in court as she was awarded guardianship of Lauren, but Randy Richardson has filed an appeal.

The News Journal indicates Delaware Court of Chancery Master Sam Glasscock III has put any action taking Lauren's life on hold while the court reviews the guardianship ruling -- a process that could take as much as three months to complete.

Regardless of the decision, an appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court is expected.

Randy Richardson also has other concerns about his daughter and says that Towers, his ex-wife, has not allowed Lauren's baby to see her.

Richardson and the Delaware Pro-Life Coalition released a video on Wednesday that shows Lauren at a nursing home reacting to family members and a dog.

The pro-life group also organized a prayer vigil near the Arbors Rehab Center in New Castle.

[LilAngel]

You’re right. Neither one of them supports constitutional rights for Americans.

[Sun]

“I bet MaCain thinks Crist is a conservative, or at least will try to pass him off as one.”

And McCain is trying to pass HIMSELF off as a conservative. LOL

[Jean S]

I’ll let others indicate whether Governor Crist is gay or not. He’s a joke and his sweater is GAY. Do you get it yet?

Yeah, I get it. Your comment was ridiculous.
You implied that Crist is GAY (the caps were your emphasis, not mine) amd was a cheap shot. You say it was a joke, if so, it was not funny and accusations like that are not appropriate on Free Republic.

My husband has an Argyle sweater, it's a favorite of his. Weird, we managed to conceive a couple of kids in spite of his love of the sweater.

This is not a pro-life thread, it a thread in the news/activisim forum. Free Republic is a pro-life website, that's a given, but discussion and dissension of end of life situations are allowed here.

[Sun]

David Limbaugh said if only McCain would fight Democrats, as hard as he fights Republicans.

Here’s what I put in my editor’s letter before my state’s primary:

“John McCain is also the senator that liberal Democrats come to when they want a senator from the Republican side of the aisle. For instance: McCain/Feingold (limits free speech); McCain/Kennedy (amnesty); McCain/Lieberman (50 cents per gallon gas tax increase).”

[floriduh voter]

The sweater was REALLY LOUD. Get it??? It was on tv or I’d post the jpeg here for your highness. LOL

[LilAngel]

Not on this thread, they’re not. If you don’t believe me, ask Jim Robinson. This is a pro-life thread. It is not open for debate, or for the promotion of the culture of death. Since Jim Robinson owns the place, your demands of equal time for views that are diametrically opposed to his carry no weight. If you want to propagandize for eugenics, do it elsewhere.

[floriduh voter]

GAY argyle sweater.

[LilAngel]

Please don’t post any photos of Charlie Crisp without a barf alert.

[Jean S]

The sweater was REALLY LOUD. Get it??? It was on tv or I’d post the jpeg here for your highness. LOL REALLY LOUD? you didn’t mention that earlier, you only said it was GAY. What do we do next? Panic time!

[LilAngel]

Did he have matching argyle rocks? LOL

[LilAngel]

Rocks and socks are the same keys on a phone keypad.

Did he have matching rocks and/or socks?

[floriduh voter]

8mmmauser tagged Crist lovers “the new cristi minstrels.” Out of tune and out of touch.

[floriduh voter]

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being a reactive mind, I give you a 10.

[floriduh voter]

Crist is a tiny pebble that wants to be a giant boulder. I desire to stay far, far away from his socks AND his GAY argyle sweater and see my tag line. It's funny and a real quote. Goodnight, FV

bttt for Lauren Richardson.Let Lauren Live.

[LilAngel]

Occasionally the new cristi minstrels add an “h” to Crist’s name. I’ve never seen them ask for a correction, nor even pretend they didn’t mean to call him “Christ.”

[8mmMauser]

I mean this response for visitors and Terri's Listers alike.

Jean S.said: This is not a pro-life thread, it a thread in the news/activisim forum. Free Republic is a pro-life website, that's a given, but discussion and dissension of end of life situations are allowed here.

So maybe I can clarify for visitors. We are a Terri Dailies thread. We have continued in this form since the horrible event of three years ago this month, and have kept the same structure. We are a distinct feature now an institution of FreeRepublic dedicated to issues surrounding Terri's Legacy and that includes inseparably pro-life perspective. As in this thread we seek out similar cases and anything related to the dark forces assaulting Terri and us.

Carrying this heavy theme we strive to keep it light with a little humor dispersed so as lighten a dark and heavy burden. This tone is similar, nay branded, by the successful quest of William F. Buckley, R.I.P. and his close sidekick, our own T'wit, R.I.P. See tribute upthread to these influences on our approach.

We welcome discussions, but as the past taught us well, we are targets of that dark side and have stood up to withering assaults from death enthusiasts and trolls and we do not suffer them kindly. Happily since we support truth, facts, and evidence, the detractors ran out of ammo many moons ago, and resort to lobbing spent shells at us. But that has nothing at all to do with discussion of pro-life issues and we welcome it, being glad to inform and to learn. Whenever dissension turns to attack of our core, we do respond sometimes in very un-P.C. ways. In this regard, as resulting from brutal battles initially and which we conquered, we keep our threads troll-free. Pour over past Terri Dailies to witness how disruptors dwindled.

Sorry Charlie has been a thorn from the start and his performance in Tallahassee makes our case. That makes me very happy, joyous, he is not our governor here in Maine, although few are worse than ours.

I don't give a hoot about Charlie's proclivities or his taste in effeminate wear. If it doesn't bother his girlfriends, it sure doesn't bother me. But I have no problem poking fun at him because of his stand on pro-life issues and Terri. Ha ha about his gay apparel. I am much worse poking fun at our candidates. You don't see me accuse Hillary directly for her choices of pals like Huma, Ellen Degenerate, or her problem, B.O., but you will see me lighting into all the candidates who equivocate on life issues.

Back to the topic, Terri Dailies are a chronicle of pro-life news. Like in church, we do not give equal time to the devil, but are decidedly pro-life. We warmly welcome visitors who are also pro-life as is our Founder. May we always strive to keep our internal disputes mild and transient if we just gotta have 'em.

8mm

"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will give you no rest."

[8mmMauser]

Catholic News Service strives to cut through the fog. the Schindler family already sees through it.

............................

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Many Catholics still need to learn about the church's teachings on end-of-life issues, such as when it might be morally acceptable to reject or terminate life-prolonging treatments, said some participants at a Vatican-sponsored congress.

~Snip~

This was made especially apparent during the legal battle over the fate of Terri Schindler Schiavo, a severely brain-damaged Florida woman who died in March 2005 after a court ordered that her husband could make her medical decisions for her. Michael Schiavo, the husband and legal guardian, said she would have wanted her feeding tube removed, while her parents said she would have wanted to remain alive based on her Catholic faith.

Bobby Schindler, Schiavo's brother and executive director of the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, said he attended the Vatican congress "to keep educating myself on these issues."

He told CNS that while the case "raised an incredible amount of awareness," incomplete or misleading media coverage also generated "a tremendous amount of confusion" that still lingers.

Pope John Paul II's 2004 allocution said artificial feeding and nutrition of patients in a persistent vegetative state was not "a medical act," but was proportionate and ordinary and therefore morally obligatory.

But Schindler said these teachings are not being conveyed adequately. He said U.S. clergy were being too silent from "apathy or indifference" and not coming to their defense in time.

Much confusion, he said, is caused when the case mistakenly is "lumped into these end-of-life discussions when in fact it was not an end-of-life situation."

"Terri was not dying, the brain injury was not going to kill her," and she died just like anyone else would die "if they took away our food and water," Schindler said..................

Ambiguities cloud moral, medical issues as end of life nears

8mm

[8mmMauser]

February 29, 2008
Tale from the 'hood

... Personhood, that is.

So you think you have a handle on how the brain works? You're sure, absolutely sure, the Terri Schiavos of the world are incapable of thought or feelings? Do you think you even know your own mind?

We've discussed babies with no brains, people with "vegetables" for brains, and preborns who experts (at spin) say can't possibly think.

Well from her fingertips to your ears, here is yet another voice.

Makes you wonder who is really lacking in grey matter. Or it should.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnylM1hI2jc

About this video and its author, Amanda Bagg, Wired.com reported February 25:

The YouTube post, she says, was a political statement, designed to call attention to people's tendency to underestimate autistics. It wasn't her first video post, but this one took off. "When the number of viewers began to climb, I got scared out of my mind," Baggs says.

As the hit count neared 100,000, her blog was flooded. At 200,000, scientists were inviting her to visit their labs. By 300,000, the TV people came calling, hearts warmed by the story of a young woman's fiery spirit and the rare glimpse into what has long been regarded as the solitary imprisonment of the autistic mind. "I've said a million times that I'm not trapped in my own world,'" Baggs says. "Yet what do most of these news stories lead with? Saying exactly that."...

Baggs is working on some new videos. One project is tentatively titled "Am I a Person Yet?" She'll explore communication, empathy, self-reflection — core elements of the human experience that have at times been used to define personhood itself. And at various points during the clip, she'll ask: "Am I a person yet?" It's a provocative idea, and you might find yourself thinking: She has a point.

Can't wait to view that one.

[HT: moderator MK, who also composed most of this post; graphic courtesy ofautism.org]

posted on February 29, 2008 10:54 AM

Leslie Hanks

V.P. Colorado RTL

"Endowed by their Creator with certain

inalienable rights, that among these

are Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

[8mmMauser]

New York Times, aka NYET, just noted the parallel event to Terri in this Clift hanger...

Tiny excerpt here.

......................

Your husband, Tom Brazaitis, died without fanfare in your living room in Washington — in sharp contrast with Terri Schiavo, whose far-more-public death is also recounted in your book. Tom died one day before Schiavo. It was bitter and angry for all the people around her, especially her parents, who did not want to accept the fact that she could not be rehabilitated. They found enough people to fool them into thinking she could............

Grande Dame

8mm

[napscoordinator]

Heroin??? This girl was a mess. Perhaps the mother should give the girl to her father. But the mother should not have to pay a dime. Let the father take care of her. The state should not pay either. Congratulations Dad. Hopefully she will rid herself of that heroin problem. Good Lord! What will the father do when the insurance runs out?