Haleigh Poutre Almost Victim of Euthanasia, Now Making Good Progress

Life News ^ | September 4, 2006 | Steven Ertelt

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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.

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Will do.

We have been watching the saga of Haleigh from the beginning and I don't know if we have missed even the smallest bit of update. Will keep watch.

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Meanwhile, as reaction to the Florida primaries pours in, many are happy with the outcome. This is from Gay.com and is repeated in many news outlets...(Beware: site has unrequested popup windows!)

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published Wednesday, September 6, 2006

Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist won the Republican nomination Tuesday to replace Gov. Jeb Bush, soundly defeating Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, a same-sex marriage foe.

With 53 percent of precincts reporting, Crist had 63.5 percent of the vote, compared to 33.9 percent for Gallagher.

A loud roar went up in Crist's hotel suite as he told family and supporters that the Associated Press had called the race. He will face the Democratic nominee, U.S. Rep. Jim Davis or state Sen. Rod Smith, in the Nov. 7 general election.

Moderate wins Fla. GOP gubernatorial nomination

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Terri's Legacy List

(Original Ohioan from Florida's ping list, update to September 7.)



Terri on the road to recovery before the second stage began.

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More admiration for Crist...

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Crist defied the conventional wisdom for how to win a Republican primary. He did not, as almost every moderate Republican in the past has done -- as Tom Gallagher did this time -- pander to the feed-Terri Schiavo crowd.

No, he would not intervene in that fiasco.

No, he would not force raped women to bear their attackers' children.

No, he would not pander to homophobia. When Gallagher hammered away at gay unions, Crist shrugged him off by saying, "Live and let live."

He tapped into the silent majority of fiscally conservative, socially moderate Republicans who are tired of seeing these issues dredged up every campaign.

Dems' turmoil clears path for 'Teflon' Charlie

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[bvw]

Harris will win, Crist will lose. That's my two bits.

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Followup to yesterday's story by Nat Hentoff on Terri's Legacy...

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It has been a great disappointment to me that the Schiavo case did not produce a movement for the protection of the lives of the disabled. I am disappointed in the GOP especially (I long ago gave up on Democrats pursuing a worthy cause) for not re-visting the issue given the Courts' unconstitutional refusal to comply with the provisions of an Article III enactment to prohibit States from killing people absent a de novo federal review. Convicted murderers have more protection.

And so it is with great pleasue that I see that the famous liberal editor of the Village Voice, Nat Hentoff, has refused to let Schiavo's memory die. Hentoff is a true believer, and on issues of protections in the court system, he is a true consistent champion.

Thanks to Nat, who recounts the strong case for Schiavo, especially the fact that she was not terminal, was breathing on her own and that there simply is no justification for refusing someone food and water in the circumstances then and there prevailing.

This was not a "right to die case." It was a disability-rights case, which I also argued at the time.

read the whole thing

http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/nhentoff.htm

Honorable Liberal Revisits Schiavo case

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Revisit of Nebraska initiative...

Initiative would direct state to err on the side of life.

A ballot initiative in Nebraska addresses humane care for people who are incapacitated. The goal is to prevent a repeat of the Terri Schiavo case, in which the handicapped woman's husband succeeded in getting a court to deny her food and water, resulting in her death.

Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics at Focus on the Family Action, said the Nebraska initiative appears to be the first of its kind.

"There have been a half-dozen states or so that have introduced this legislatively," she said, "but this is the only one that we're aware of that's on the ballot in November."

Compassion and Choices, a pro-euthanasia group, is opposing the initiative, calling it a "health-decision restriction."

Nebraskans to Vote on End-of-Life Issues

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Sounds like a real possibility.

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Some previous recent stories on Haleigh...

Will excluding girl in coma to be contested

Stepfather pleads not guilty in assault on 12-year-old

Mom: DSS won’t let me visit Haleigh

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Ping to Recovering Democrat thread of cheer. Thanks, FV.

"Thou remainest" (Heb. 1:11).

He Remains (God with us even in bad times)

[T'wit]

>> And don't forget it was Dick Lamm who passed America's first abortion law, signed April 25, 1967.

Ironic that Michael Schiavo campaigned for Peggy Lamm, Richard Lamm's ex-sister-in-law (and ideological soulmate). Peggy was supported by Emily's List as well as Schiavo. She was supposedly running about even with her opponent, Ed Perlmutter; at least one poll put her ahead.

Look what happened!

Here's what Michael Schiavo's endorsement can do for you

[T'wit]

>> A requirement that the patient's lawyer, judge, and other interested parties actually see the patient and observe their condition.

Great idea. But also tricky because that puts unqualified observers in the role of playing doctor. There should be a real doctor present to guide the tour, as it were.

Dr. Hammesfahr pointed out that brain-damaged patients receive commands very slowly and respond very slowly. It would be hard for us untrained observers to understand and be patient for that. We live in a faster world.

Judge Greer himself was grossly guilty of playing doctor with medical evidence. He censored it to throw out responses that weren't fast enough for his untrained eye. The result was to turn positive evidence about Terri into negative. He might have been innocently ignorant in doing this, but I think he was rigging the trial as he did so many other ways.

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>> Pray for his repentance.

Amen!

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>> Wolfson "...broke with tradition, and actually spent time with her... He changed his recommendation real quick.

The testimony about Terri from actual eyewitnesses was just about unanimous, and it was striking. They all said she was responsive. There were quite a few first-hand observers outside Terri's immediate family. Three of her nurses have testified under oath to her responsiveness, and they all said the same thing independent of each other. (At least two other nurses have spoken similarly but in a different context.) David Gibbs, the Schindlers' last attorney, wrote about it extensively in his book. Other attorneys-- Anderson, her husband (who visited Terri), Weller -- affirmed her consciousness. (Michael's own lawyers affirmed her responsiveness in the malpractice trials.) At least two close friends who visited Terri after her injury knew she was "in there." A neurologist from Mayo, who was permitted only to observe, not examine, and who from news reports had thought she was PVS, changed his mind upon seeing her and said she should live and be treated.

Small wonder Michael Schiavo and George Felos wouldn't let the press visit Terri, or allow examination by doctors not of their careful choosing. It was too easy to see the lies about her being PVS.

One other witness should be "called," and that was Dr. Stephen Nelson, the brain specialist who assisted in Terri's autopsy. (Yes, the one who made that gratuitous remark about Terri's dehydrated brain being smaller than Quinlan's, as if that meant anything.) When asked if his findings ruled out Terri interacting with her family or other people, Dr. Nelson said: "No."

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They call him a "moderate." That's how leftists compliment a RINO. The word is liberal-speak for "one of us," but we don't want to say so in public because "moderate" sounds innocent and "liberal" is the kiss of death.

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Yes, do read the whole thing. Soak in it. It really was striking that some of the best minds of the Left, as well as the Right, were unflinching in their support for Terri (and never mind that they shared their position with the Pope, George W. Bush and Tom Delay!). Hentoff, Tom Harken, Ralph Nader, Jesse Jackson and at least qualifiedly, Gloria Allred and Alan Dershowitz come to mind. No doubt there were others.

And that raises an important question. If the Right and the Left agreed about Terri's right to life, what political force lobbied for her death? What force was stronger than the right and left combined? Surely this indicates a major shift in the political spectrum, and conservatives had better think hard about how to address it and advance their policies.

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Mikey just has that talent, the kiss of death.

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Those who showed at the vigil represented an amazingly rich spectrum of outlook. They were all united on this, Jews and Christians, agnostics, atheists, wiccans, all could clearly see the wrong and the limited few who were opposed were clear in their seperate agenda, diametrically opposed to the rest.

Like white and black.

[wastedyears]

Would it need to be put into a living will?

[floriduh voter]

Almost a victim, a little girl is making progress thanks to grassroots activism. Governor Romney protected Haleigh Poutre from state sponsored death.

Crist won't ever do that and neither will Davis. Crist helped off Terri, Davis didn't.

[T'wit]

>> They were all united on this, Jews and Christians, agnostics, atheists, wiccans, all could clearly see the wrong and the limited few who were opposed were clear in their seperate agenda, diametrically opposed to the rest.

Some take a spiritual view of life, some do not. C. S. Lewis used his own terminology for it in his seminal book, "The Abolition of Man." He called the rules of higher value the "Tao." They come in a bundle, like the Ten Commandments. You must accept the whole package or you are not within the Tao. Lewis traced those moral rules through many civilizations in all parts of the world. Civilized life without them is impossible.

The reason one cannot exclude some rules is that enemies of the Good will stress one or two rules out of context and out of all proportion to do evil. Liberals do that 90% of every working day. George Felos blew up a semi-mythical "right to privacy" to the point where it superseded Terri Schiavo's basic right to life.

One celebrates all who open their soul to the Tao, be they Christian, agnostic or wiccan.