Battle Over Possible Euthanasia of New York Teenager Gets Pro-Life Attention

Bronx, NY (LifeNews.com) -- The battle over the life and death of a teenage girl in New York has drawn the attention of pro-life advocates in recent days. The fight to save Javona Peters reminds some of the struggle of the Schindler family in Florida to save the life of Terri Schiavo, a beloved daughter and sibling whose former husband eventually took her life.

In this case, Peters' parents are disagreeing on whether or not to remove her feeding tube and take her life.

Peters fell into a coma in October while she had a routine medical procedure at Montefiore Medical Center. Doctors have pegged her as being in a persistent vegetative state, a medical diagnosis pro-life advocates dispute because so many patients have partially or fully recovered.

Peters' parents were never married and are estranged and have considered a medical malpractice suit against the hospital, according to a New York Daily News report.

But Janet Joseph and Leonard Peters are also feuding over Peters' care and have each filed separate requests to be given custody of their daughter. Peters has been opposed to removing the feeding tube but has wavered recently.

Edward Gersowitz, an attorney for Joseph, told the newspaper that "Because of her condition, she cannot make decisions for herself, and the court will have to appoint a guardian to make decisions for her."

As a teen, Peters doesn't have a living will or some other advanced directive providing guidelines for the type of medical treatment, or withdrawal, she favors.

The case has drawn the attention of the Schindler family, which sent out a notice about the case from its foundation, which helps disabled patients receive legal help and appropriate medical care.

Leading bioethics watchdog Wesley J. Smith has also commented on it and he says the PVS diagnosis seems "rushed" to him.

Smith says he sympathizes with the father and the pressure he is under to take Peters' life.

"We know that too often medical teams and social workers pressure and cajole for such outcomes," he said.

Smith draws comparisons to the case of Haleigh Poutre, a Massachusetts girl whom LifeNews.com reported was also declared PVS, but who has recovered from the abuse she suffered.

In that case, state government officials had ordered her feeding tube removed but she recovered from the PVS state shortly beforehand.

He said she has made progress since her overdose -- she no longer needs a ventilator to breathe -- and given more time and therapy that can continue. "We just want to give her a chance," he said, adding he is not talking about extreme measures.

The culture of death is doing their best to convince the world that giving someone food and water is an "extreme" measure.

Edith Towers, who maintains her daughter did not wish to live this way and seeks to end artificial life support measures.

And she knows this how?

I would presume that Lauren is a heroin addict (it is unlikely that a woman who is several months pregnant who had never used heroin would try it) and as such any "wishes" she may or may not have made known are questionable. So, the assumption should be that any remarks she made about not wanting to be alive stemmed from her addiction, but since it appears that she will never use heroin again that is no longer an issue.

If we err, it MUST be on the side of life.

He also said she should be kept alive for the sake of her 1-year-old daughter, and is concerned Towers, his ex-wife, has not allowed Lauren and her child to see each other.

Regardless of the outcome, it heartless to deny the child the right to meet her mother.

On days like today, the world almost looks turned upside down as once again, murder is declared a right of privacy. We grit our teeth and persevere. This thread by NYer illustrated how far things can go with ersatz Christianity. Thanks, narses, for the ping.

SCHENECTADY -- To commemorate Tuesday's 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that affirmed a woman's right to an abortion, clergy blessed this city's new Planned Parenthood clinic in a ceremony dubbed "On Sacred Ground."

"Today is more than about the building and about bricks and mortar," Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Linda Scharf said. "It's a blessing to demonstrate the support of the clergy."...........

35 years pass, but not debate (clergy bless new Planned Parenthood clinic ) Rabbi blows Shofar

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March for Life...

Jan. 22 marked the 35th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that plagued America with abortion-on-demand. It also marked the 35th time hundreds of thousands of Americans came together to protest the decision in our nation’s capital.

The peaceful march followed a route that started at the National Mall and continued down Constitution Avenue. The march formally ended at the Supreme Court building. Notable former speakers at the March for Life includes U.S. President George W. Bush, Molly Kelly, Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr., several members of the United States Congress and Senate, and family members of Terri Schiavo. There were also many members of the Silent No More organization, which is made up of men and women who regret their abortions.....

Locals attended pro-life rally in Washington

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Salem, Oregon...

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Mary Ellen York, a member of St. Mary Parish in Eugene, was raised by her mother and grandmother in the Midwest. When she became pregnant at age 16, her mother made her have an abortion.

The cycle repeated the following year, when she became pregnant a second time. At 18, York was raped, again became pregnant, and chose to undergo her third abortion.
“I hated myself,” York says, choking up as she recalls the trauma. “And I figured God hated me, too…how could he forgive me for doing such horrible things?”

In 1994, York was nearly killed in an automobile accident. It took her two years to recover — a recovery that was labeled a “miracle” by her physicians.

~Snip~

he closing speaker was Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schindler Schiavo. The disabled Florida woman died in 2005 after she was kept disconnected from feeding and hydration, even after a reconnect order from Congress and appeals from her family as high as the U.S. Supreme Court.

Schindler told the rapt crowd that his sister’s cause was weakened because not all Catholic ethicists in the U.S. supported Pope John Paul’s teaching. Food and water, the pope said in 2004, are basic care to be provided to patients in a persistent vegetative state.

“You wonder why we have the confusion we have,” said Schindler, thanking the Vatican for its clear statements on the issue. One cardinal said later that those who stood by and did nothing to save Schiavo are accomplices in murder.

“The question is not ‘Would anyone want to live like my sister?’” said Schindler. “It is, ‘What are we going to do to take care of these people?’”.....................

Love proclaimed best way to promote dignity of life

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Haleigh Poutre update...

From "The Republican"

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SPRINGFIELD - Hampden Superior Court Judge Bertha D. Josephson said yesterday she will send to the appropriate state court officials a request by Jason D. Strickland's lawyer to have a Superior Court judge specially assigned to Strickland's assault case.

Strickland, of Westfield, is charged with assault and battery on a child. He was charged after his step-daughter Haleigh Poutre was hospitalized with a brain injury in 2005. Haleigh, 13, remains in a Boston rehabilitation hospital.

The last judge assigned to the case recused himself because of information he learned while handling a Juvenile Court case involving Haleigh. Juvenile Court cases are not open to the public.

Judge sought in Strickland case

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Graveyards are peaceful, too. Thread by wagglebee.

TORONTO, January 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Friday January 25, a broad array of pro-abortion activists came together at the University of Toronto Law School for an interdisciplinary symposium commemorating the twentieth anniversary of R v. Morgentaler, the Supreme Court case in which the criminal law on abortion in Canada was deemed unconstitutional.

The day was divided into predominantly legal analysis of the decision and the remaining barriers to abortion access, followed afterwards by talks from abortion providers, the journalist Heather Mallick, Member of Parliament Dr. Carolyn Bennett, and a talk on abortion at the United Nations......

Abortionist: "World is a Kinder, Gentler Place" because of Abortion

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Tennessee Law...

Thread by wagglebee.

NASHVILLE, January 31, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Tennessee Senate has passed a constitutional amendment that could, if also passed by the state's House of Representatives, nullify a state Supreme Court ruling that claims that abortion is protected under the Tennessee constitution.

The amendment reads: "Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother." ...........

Tennessee Senate Passes Uncompromising Pro-Life Amendment

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Tennessee Law...

Thread by wagglebee.

Tennessee Senate Passes Uncompromising Pro-Life Amendment

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Jim Robinson on the candidates, Huckabee!

Thanks, narses, for the ping.

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Number seven, if we can keep Huckabee in the race all the way through, thus preventing McCain or Romney from gaining enough delegates to win the nomination, then maybe, just maybe a deadlocked convention might seek out another candidate. One who can re-unite the Reagan Coalition, save the GOP, and put us back on the conservative track. Of course, my personal favorite to be that man would be FRed Thompson.

Woo hoo!!

Let it ring out through grassroots America and on to the convention! Support life! Support the GOP! Support Huckabee! And re-draft FRed Thompson!!

Never give in, never give up, and never lose hope. Long live the Reagan Revolution!

Seven good reasons to support Mike Huckabee [be sure to read reason number seven]

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

RU-486? If U still R, look further here...

Thread by Libertarian444. Thanks, wagglebee.

BEIJING — A huge state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company that exports to dozens of countries, including the United States, is at the center of a nationwide drug scandal after nearly 200 Chinese cancer patients were paralyzed or otherwise harmed last summer by contaminated leukemia drugs.......

Tainted Drugs Linked to Maker of Abortion Pill

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McCain Scrutiny redux. Whether Huckabee or Romney, I cannot imagine anything worse than this disaster, McCain, Hillary, or B.O.

Thread by Delacon. Mark Levin sees Romney as the lesser evil... Thanks, narses, for the ping.

......McCain has not won overwhelming pluralities, let alone majorities, in any of the primaries. A thirty-six-percent win in Florida doesn’t make a juggernaut. But the liberal media are promoting him now as the presumptive nominee. More and more establishment Republican officials are jumping on McCain’s bandwagon — the latest being Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has all but destroyed California’s Republican party.

Let’s face it, none of the candidates are perfect. They never are. But McCain is the least perfect of the viable candidates. The only one left standing who can honestly be said to share most of our conservative principles is Mitt Romney. I say this as someone who has not been an active Romney supporter. If conservatives don’t unite behind Romney at this stage, and become vocal in their support for him, then they will get McCain as their Republican nominee and probably a Democrat president. And in either case, we will have a deeply flawed president.

Rally for Romney: Conservatives need to act now, before it is too late.

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Warning.

Thread by Lorianne. Thanks, narses, for the ping.

A company building a major abortion business structure in Denver has been warned by a national paving coalition to break off work on the project, or else "my fear for you is that we are the first of hundreds of companies that will begin collaborating against The Weitz Co."

The warning comes from a vice president for the coalition of 1-800-ASPHALT, which reports having contractors in 44 states from New York to California, and has contracts for millions of dollars in asphalt and site work..........

Denver abortion clinic builder issued warning

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ACLU likes PP. Thread by ConservativeTrucker. Thanks, narses, for the ping.

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Shhh, kids, don't tell mommy and daddy we're taking you out to kill their grandchild! Doesn't anyone find it strange how these 2 organizations are teaming up together to fight to end the parental notification law when a minor student is pregnant?

How dare these people - what gives them the right to come between family?

If parents have a girl who is a minor who is in the public school system, they have a right to know if she gets pregnant. Their right to know overpowers the girl's right to privacy.

The ACLU and Planned Parenthood even want it to be OK for school officials to whisk the girl out of class and take her to an abortion clinic - across state lines if necessary - to get an abortion... without EVER TELLING THE PARENTS!

ACLU and Planned Parenthood

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With all of the hundreds of ‘routine medical procedures’ performed every day, how do you automatically assume that it was an abortion? I did a look up of her name. It was a procedure on her brain.

“Sixteen-year-old Javona Peters sat up in bed at Montefiore Medical Center the morning of Oct. 17, smiling and chatting, ready for her operation. It was supposed to be a routine, 90-minute procedure called a ventriculostomy. The surgeon would bore a hole in the brain to drain cerebral fluid into a cavity. This would alleviate the potentially destructive pressure of what’s commonly known as water on the brain.”

Laura Richardson

A new thread is out on the plight of Laura Richardson, amplifying our post upthread at #338. Thread by Pyro7480. Thanks, wagglebee, for the ping.

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

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

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