Posted on 02/01/2006 7:29:10 AM PST by 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:
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
After Death Do We Part
By Pete Vere, JCL
--snip--
Like my colleague Dr. Ed Peters, I wonder about the validity of Michael and Jody’s marriage. Canon 1090 §1 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law is clear: “One who, with a view to entering marriage with a particular person, has killed that person’s spouse, or his or her own spouse, invalidly attempts this marriage.”
snippet from: http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=31747
This article is definitely worth reading.
Sunday, 30 April 2006
3:00pm – 3:15pm
Welcome / Introductions
Personal Experiences with Death and Dying
Lead Speaker: Michael Schiavo
Monday, 1 May 2006
8:45am – 10:15am
Who Should Decide: Surrogates / Families?
Lead Speaker: Jay Wolfson, Dr.P.H., J.D.
10:30am – 12:00pm
Who Should Decide: Courts / Legislators?
Lead Speaker: Circuit Judge George W. Greer
Lunch with Talk: The Role of the Media
Speaker: Robert Bazell, Chief Science and Health
Correspondent, NBC News
Lead Speaker: Ron Cranford, M.D.
Closing Remarks: Arthur L. Caplan, Ph.D
Oh Lordy..."Why Is It So Hard To Die In America"? Ask everyone on the evening news body count, morons.
Hey look, they're serving lunch! I hope they get stuck with Ensure....(tastes horrible)
Quite a cast of characters participating! I thought for a minute that Jim Jones would be there passing out refreshments, too.
Ha ha haaaa...Jim Jones will be there in spirit.
It has also been my experience that people with retardation (from whatever cause) have been some of the sweetest, gentlest, most serene people I've ever known.
Can you imagine what the Shindlers must feel when these ghouls get together to celebrate their daughter death? Lord.
I 2nd that T'wit. It often makes me think who is really retarded.
Where's Dick Cheney when you need him?
You go first, bioethicist hypocrites.
What a surprise! I can only shake my head at this news.
He has made an assertion. I don't think it rises to the level of an argument in the absence of any supporting evidence. If he wishes to present sourced commentary and quotations from those he affects to speak for, I'll listen.
I'd like to know more about such minds. Suicidal tendencies are not normal, even among the hard cases. They are not noble either. We honor the enduring courage of those who bear their own burdens or who patiently care for a loved one. We do not honor quitters.
It occurs to me that Jim Jones was better than these people. Jones was as sick as a human can get but he was still man enough to drink his own grape Kool-Aid. The ghouls at the Pennsylvania seminar haven't got his guts. They are interested only in beating up on women and the aged and disabled folks who can't fight back. They are bullies, and like all bullies, cowards.
I'll bet they have a session devoted to plundering the late loved one's estate.
First on suicide and disabled: I was astounded at the number of disabled who came to Pinellas Park to defend Terri. They reflected a substantial percentage of all the protesters, represented most all the faiths I can think of, and even some who were atheist or agnostic. Early into the vigil, one could visit at 11:00pm on a rainy night and see almost nobody, except bold courageous souls in wheelchairs! Early morning, late at night, all the time, the disabled were there, sometimes suffering greatly for the effort, but hiding it, and staying brave. Some were horribly disabled, one came from Texas, carried on a stretcher. No talks of suicide or despair, just the resolve to defend Terri and her "right to live" (not die).
What a humbling sight it is to witness such courage from those we might expect to wallow in well deserved pity.
Second, the SP Times was ubiquitous. At least one of their reporters was nice, but we never saw much good in print, only the negatives. St. Pete Times has a building right in the middle of scientologyland, a stone's throw away from the emporor's chamber of Judge Greed. I came to see the St. Pete Times as an equation:
New York Times is to liberals as St. Pete Times is to.......?
8mm
"The Saint Petersburg Times"
Anyone know if The Saint Pete newspaper is owned by the New York Times?
Mosquitoes? Rats? Leeches? Street drunks? Kudzu? Black Plague germs? The Progressive Labor Party? Boy, this is a stumper. :-) :-)
Meanwhile, some updates vis a vis Haleigh Poutre:
At this stage of her troubled life, Haleigh needs an advocate who can love her like no other. Her biological mother should have a voice in her future.
Bureaucrats, gotta love 'em......or not!
Turns out DSS screens award recipients as well as they screen some foster parents.
Chris Duhart, 43, was arrested on Jan. 27 and charged with statutory rape. Details are sketchy, but according to police reports, Duhart told police he had sexual contact with the foster child. He has pleaded innocent.
8mm
What an inspiring story this is! -- especially to those of us who could not be there and see it and be part of it. Thank you for your first-hand report -- and for being there.
I've had only one strong encounter with scientology, in the persons of two young friends, both young women. They gave me guided tours of the local "church" and more secret facilities. (I found it ridiculous :-) ). This was thirty years ago.
One of the young women eventually escaped. The one who did not was surnamed Cranford. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
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