Let Lauren Live!

ChristtheKingMaine ^ | May 7, 2008 | Judie Brown

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LAUREN RICHARDSON - YOU CAN HELP!
By Judie Brown

It has been a source of ongoing sadness to read of the difficulties Lauren Richardson’s father has had over the course of the past several months. For those of you who are not familiar with her case, Lauren overdosed on heroin on August 28, 2006. She suffered oxygen deprivation and, as a result of the overdose, is now in a coma and unable to speak out for herself. At the time of the overdose, Lauren was expecting a baby. Her parents honored what they knew would have been her wish and did all they could to keep her healthy and comfortable until the child was born. Today, though Lauren may not be aware of it, she is the mother of Ember Grace, who was born in February 2007.

Since the birth of her daughter, Lauren remains unable to speak of her concerns, but she has a loving father who is doing all he can to protect her from suffering the same fate as Terri Schiavo. However, Lauren’s mother, who has been named her legal guardian, is sadly not of the same opinion and is working with attorneys to pressure the courts to permit Lauren’s starvation.

Lauren’s father has kept hope alive, even at times when there appeared to be no hope in human terms. Lauren’s father is a man of hope in Christ and is dedicated to spending every breath he has on defending Lauren, regardless of what it might cost him in physical exhaustion and worldly goods. The most recent update for those concerned about Lauren tells us the following:

We struggle at times as we seek to share with the public the details of what is happening with Lauren because of the disagreement we have with Lauren’s mother. We cannot understand her reasoning in refusing a path of hope, healing and restoration for Lauren and insisting on causing her death by withholding food and water from her. The issue in Lauren’s case is the eternal truth that all people, no matter what their medical condition, bear the image of God and deserve basic care and an opportunity to be restored to health.

Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo’s brother, has written about Lauren in an editorial earlier this year, "False Compassion," and is working closely with Lauren’s father in order to provide expertise that he is uniquely qualified to share during a trying time like this.

There are many links on the Life for Lauren web site that will assist you in tracking this case and learning who is supporting Lauren’s ongoing care and who is opposing it. More importantly, there is something you can do to express your concerns.

ACTION NEEDED NOW

The governor of Delaware, Ruth Ann Minner, is being asked by pro-life Americans across this nation to intervene in this case in order to save Lauren from what many fear is an imminent court order dictating that Lauren be starved and dehydrated to death. I am asking you to be one of those who communicates your passionate belief that Lauren’s life is sacred and deserves to be protected from those who would order her death. The governor’s e-mail address is governor.minner@state.de.us.

Further, it would mean a great deal to Lauren’s father, Randy, if you sent him a copy of your e-mail to Governor Ruth Ann Minner. Randy’s e-mail address is Lifeforlauren@aol.com. 

During a recent visit to Anchorage, Alaska where Bobby Schindler was invited to speak, he told a reporter from The Catholic Anchor, "Once we accept that killing is an acceptable answer to human suffering, we lose any type of parameters. Euthanasia is a form of abandonment. It is not compassion."

Truer words were never spoken. As I frequently tell people who argue that we pro-lifers are being heartless and cruel for fighting to defend the rights of a "hopeless case," "God is the author of every human being’s life, and He has never given permission to a single one of us to arbitrarily rob another human being of life for any reason including disability or illness."

As Flannery O’Connor once wrote on the subject of false compassion, "In the absence of faith, we govern by tenderness. And tenderness leads to the gas chamber."

Lauren Richardson is not terminal – she is severely disabled. Lauren Richardson should not be murdered.

Judie Brown is president of American Life League and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

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This thread by fightinJAG ought to stir things up. We posted the topic as a news item on Friday #1090.

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In 1990, Theresa Schiavo, an American citizen, had a cardiac arrest that caused irreversible brain damage which led to a persistent vegetative state diagnosis. A few years later, this diagnosis became a source of conflict over the interruption of artificial nutrition.

The "Schiavo Case" was widely discussed from a medical, ethical and social standpoint in the United States and elsewhere. . . . [A]n article to be published in the September 23 issue of Neurology, . . . examines the media coverage featuring this famous case.......

The Schiavo Case: Are Mass Media To Blame?

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From India...

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It was for a second opinion that pregnant Niketa and husband Haresh Mehta landed up at gynaecologist Nikhil Datar's clinic in suburban Mumbai last month. They didn't want to continue with the pregnancy after discovering that the foetus had a heart problem, but Indian laws don't allow abortion beyond 20 weeks. Their gynaecologist felt that Dr Datar, who also has a degree in law, would be able to guide them better. What followed had the nation transfixed for over a week.

Medical dilemmas have a way of gripping attention. The entire world watched for five days as 41-year-old Terri Schiavo lay dying after the US courts permitted her husband to perform euthanasia using starvation and dehydration. The plight of Baby Manjhi, the daughter of a Japanese couple born to an Indian surrogate mother, is also being observed across the globe.

It is not just the smell of antiseptic that is common to all medical corridors. Dilemmas over medical ethics, too, are all familiar here. Ask Dr Samiran Nundy, Delhi-based transplant surgeon who drafted India's first law on transplant of organs in the early nineties, and he recalls how during his days in the AIIMS there always was a shortage of respirators as compared to the number of patients needing the contraption. "How can you decide which patient needs the respirator more than the other? It is such a dilemma," he says..............

When man plays god

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In this thread from wagglebee, Wesley J. Smith examines the Oregon death march.

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I think the stories of patients being refused life-extending chemotherapy by Oregon's Medicaid--but offered assisted suicide instead--will materially impact the I-1000 legalization effort in Washington. First, this kind of heartlessness was predicted by opponents. Second, the old myth that Oregon has operated without abuses is now shattered. Third, unlike other Oregon abuses, the MSM is actually reporting the story--like an extended report on ABC News. From the story:

The health plan takes "no position" on the physician-assisted suicide law, according to spokesman Jim Sellers. The terminally ill who qualify can receive pain medication, comfort and hospice care, "no matter what the cost," he said. But Sellers acknowledged the letter to Wagner was a public relations blunder and something the state is "working on."

"Now we have to review to ensure sensitivity and clarity," Sellers told ABCNews.com "Not only is the patient receiving had news, but insensitivity on top of that. This is something that requires the human touch."...................

Wesley J. Smith: MSM Finally Discovers Compassionlessness of Oregon Assisted Suicide

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Some First Amendment lovers also love censorship just as much in this odd example of cognitive dissonance. Breaking Dawn reaction reminds me in a way of when "Red Dawn" appeared in the mid-eighties, a similar reaction then, too, different subjects in a way.

Thread by wagglebee.

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A little over a week ago, the literary world was lauding novelist Stephenie Meyer, a Mormon stay-at-home mother, as the new J.K. Rowling amid the excitement surrounding the release of the fourth instalment in her "Twilight" teen fiction series, "Breaking Dawn."

Today, the bestselling book is the subject of a backlash that's prompted a group in the United States to organize a "return your book" protest.........

Readers protest teen novel 'Breaking Dawn' (It's anti-abortion)

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A thread by wagglebee on William Wilberforce...

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Change!

It's the mantra of the political season. But what kind of change—from what to what?

Will taxes go up or down? Will we stay in Iraq or get out? Will marriage be protected or abandoned? Will we get restrained judges or judicial activists? Will our children have fewer or more educational choices? Will we go nuclear or stay with coal and oil? Will our foreign policy be interventionist or isolationist? The list of questions goes on and on, and voters should demand concrete answers.....

How to Produce Real Change (William Wilberforce)

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Terri and the media...

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In 1990, Theresa Schiavo, an American citizen, had a cardiac arrest that caused irreversible brain damage which led to a persistent vegetative state diagnosis. A few years later, this diagnosis became a source of conflict over the interruption of artificial nutrition.

The "Schiavo Case" was widely discussed from a medical, ethical and social standpoint in the United States and elsewhere. In an article to be published in the September 23 issue of Neurology, the renowned journal of the American Academy of Neurology, and available online today, a team of bioethicists composed of Dr. Eric Racine of the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM) and experts from Stanford University, in California, and the University of British Columbia examines the media coverage featuring this famous case.

The study reviewed American daily newspapers that were most prolific about this story: the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Tampa Tribune and the St. Petersburg Times. A total of 1 141 articles and over 400 letters to the editor were analyzed. Never before had the media coverage of such a clinical case been studied so extensively. The accuracy and the nature of the statements on Terri Schiavo's neurological condition, her behaviours, her behavioural repertoire, her prognosis and the withdrawal of treatment were examined. "In the course of our research, we were surprised by the amount of medical inaccuracies that these newspapers had published, said Dr. Racine. Some journalists even wrote about Mrs. Schiavo's reactions to specific words or expressions supposedly showing that she was conscious." More than scientific and medical information, the legal, political and ethical dimensions made the headlines.

Only 1% of the articles examined gave a definition of the "persistent vegetative state," an essential concept to understand the issues at stake. The persistent vegetative state is an established neurological condition characterized by severe lesions to the cerebral cortex, which eliminate higher functions: inability to communicate, absence of memory, absence of pain, etc. However, the brain stem responsible for vital functions is not damaged, which accounts for the patients' reflexes and their ability to breathe and swallow independently. Despite the fact that Terri Schiavo's medical condition did not allow any reasonable hope of recovery, a fifth of all articles (21%) contained statements according to which her condition would improve. "Our observations show that the press capitalized on the controversy to a large extent, and selling copies mattered more than delivering scientific information. Media coverage sustained myths and false hopes," explains Eric Racine.

The Neurology article provides an objective measure of misinformation, which underlined that the information available to the media had limitations. "The public debate surrounding this case showed that the medical, ethical and legal consensuses on the legitimacy of the withdrawal of treatment in accordance to a patient's will were challenged." In fact, Racine points out that while in the 60's and 70's people mostly rallied over the right to refuse treatment, an opposite pressure was applied in the Schiavo Case by relatives and public opinion. "This case is quite original because it reveals the emergence of a pro-life social stream, a trend that has now reached Canada," adds the researcher.

For their misunderstanding of the subject matter or their bias, are journalists to be blamed? Mass media have become a space of complex social interaction where the public takes its information and reacts to it. However, Internet and the media cannot replace official sources, be they medical, legal or political. In order to improve the quality of the information that is relayed to the public, families and key-actors, specialists must adopt strategies that will take into account the limitations identified in the media coverage of the Schiavo Case. Such ethical and medical debates would certainly benefit from information that is both more accurate and more accessible to the layperson.

Reference: Eric Racine, Rakesh Amaram, Matthew Seidler, Marta Karczewska, Judy Illes. (2008) Media coverage of the persistent vegetative state and end-of-life decision-making. Neurology, published online August 6, 2008, http://www.neurology.org/papbyrecent.shtml.

Eric Racine is Director of the Neuroethics Research Unit at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM). He is also Associate Researcher at Université de Montréal and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University. This research was funded by the IRCM, the National Institutes of Health, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Greenwall Foundation.

Established in 1967, the IRCM (www.ircm.qc.ca) is recognized as one of the country's top-performing health research centres. It has a mandate to understand the causes and mechanisms of diseases in order to find diagnostic tools and means of prevention and treatment; to train a new generation of high-level scientists; and to contribute to Québec's socio-economic development by facilitating the commercial development of new discoveries. The IRCM has 37 research units and a staff of more than 450.

Media coverage of persistent vegetative state and end-of-life decision-making

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Terri and the media...

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

In 1990, Theresa Schiavo, an American citizen, had a cardiac arrest that caused irreversible brain damage which led to a persistent vegetative state diagnosis. A few years later, this diagnosis became a source of conflict over the interruption of artificial nutrition.

The "Schiavo Case" was widely discussed from a medical, ethical and social standpoint in the United States and elsewhere. In an article to be published in the September 23 issue of Neurology, the renowned journal of the American Academy of Neurology, and available online today, a team of bioethicists composed of Dr. Eric Racine of the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM) and experts from Stanford University, in California, and the University of British Columbia examines the media coverage featuring this famous case.

The study reviewed American daily newspapers that were most prolific about this story: the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Tampa Tribune and the St. Petersburg Times. A total of 1 141 articles and over 400 letters to the editor were analyzed. Never before had the media coverage of such a clinical case been studied so extensively. The accuracy and the nature of the statements on Terri Schiavo's neurological condition, her behaviours, her behavioural repertoire, her prognosis and the withdrawal of treatment were examined. "In the course of our research, we were surprised by the amount of medical inaccuracies that these newspapers had published, said Dr. Racine. Some journalists even wrote about Mrs. Schiavo's reactions to specific words or expressions supposedly showing that she was conscious." More than scientific and medical information, the legal, political and ethical dimensions made the headlines.

Only 1% of the articles examined gave a definition of the "persistent vegetative state," an essential concept to understand the issues at stake. The persistent vegetative state is an established neurological condition characterized by severe lesions to the cerebral cortex, which eliminate higher functions: inability to communicate, absence of memory, absence of pain, etc. However, the brain stem responsible for vital functions is not damaged, which accounts for the patients' reflexes and their ability to breathe and swallow independently. Despite the fact that Terri Schiavo's medical condition did not allow any reasonable hope of recovery, a fifth of all articles (21%) contained statements according to which her condition would improve. "Our observations show that the press capitalized on the controversy to a large extent, and selling copies mattered more than delivering scientific information. Media coverage sustained myths and false hopes," explains Eric Racine.

The Neurology article provides an objective measure of misinformation, which underlined that the information available to the media had limitations. "The public debate surrounding this case showed that the medical, ethical and legal consensuses on the legitimacy of the withdrawal of treatment in accordance to a patient's will were challenged." In fact, Racine points out that while in the 60's and 70's people mostly rallied over the right to refuse treatment, an opposite pressure was applied in the Schiavo Case by relatives and public opinion. "This case is quite original because it reveals the emergence of a pro-life social stream, a trend that has now reached Canada," adds the researcher.

For their misunderstanding of the subject matter or their bias, are journalists to be blamed? Mass media have become a space of complex social interaction where the public takes its information and reacts to it. However, Internet and the media cannot replace official sources, be they medical, legal or political. In order to improve the quality of the information that is relayed to the public, families and key-actors, specialists must adopt strategies that will take into account the limitations identified in the media coverage of the Schiavo Case. Such ethical and medical debates would certainly benefit from information that is both more accurate and more accessible to the layperson.

Reference: Eric Racine, Rakesh Amaram, Matthew Seidler, Marta Karczewska, Judy Illes. (2008) Media coverage of the persistent vegetative state and end-of-life decision-making. Neurology, published online August 6, 2008, http://www.neurology.org/papbyrecent.shtml.

Eric Racine is Director of the Neuroethics Research Unit at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM). He is also Associate Researcher at Université de Montréal and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University. This research was funded by the IRCM, the National Institutes of Health, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Greenwall Foundation.

Established in 1967, the IRCM (www.ircm.qc.ca) is recognized as one of the country's top-performing health research centres. It has a mandate to understand the causes and mechanisms of diseases in order to find diagnostic tools and means of prevention and treatment; to train a new generation of high-level scientists; and to contribute to Québec's socio-economic development by facilitating the commercial development of new discoveries. The IRCM has 37 research units and a staff of more than 450.

Media coverage of persistent vegetative state and end-of-life decision-making

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More on good ole Oregun, the land where I was raised. The Oregon Ducks produce deadly quacks...

Thread by wagglebee.

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The 64-year-old Oregon woman, whose lung cancer had been in remission, learned the disease had returned and would likely kill her. Her last hope was a $4,000-a-month drug that her doctor prescribed for her, but the insurance company refused to pay.

What the Oregon Health Plan did agree to cover, however, were drugs for a physician-assisted death. Those drugs would cost about $50.........

Death Drugs Cause Uproar in Oregon: Terminally Ill Denied Drugs for Life, But Can Opt for Suicide

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And more on Orygun still... Thread by rhema with thanks to Salvation for the ping.

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Most inhumanities start small, like the beginning of a tsunami, but then build, as they head toward inevitable and unstoppable destruction. It is difficult to pinpoint the precise beginning of the cultural tsunami that has devalued human life. Did it begin with the subjugation of women? Did it begin with slavery? The Nazis made their contribution with the Holocaust and Josef Mengele's hideous human experiments. Surely unrestricted abortion added to the growing list of inhumanities.

Now we have the next wave. Randy Stroup is a 53-year-old Oregon man who has prostrate cancer, but no insurance to cover his medical treatment. The state pays for treatment in some cases, but it has denied help to Stroup. State officials have determined that chemotherapy would be too expensive and so they have offered him an alternative: death.

License to kill: Oregon case may signal the next wave in assisted suicide

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Charlie...

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Gov. Charlie Crist must appoint two new justices to the Florida Supreme Court within the next few months to replace justices who have announced their retirements.

Today, at the Tampa International Airport, the Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission began interviewing the 50 candidates who have applied for the positions.

Crist made a brief appearance in the middle of the interview of Tallahassee Judge Charles A. Francis. Crist, who is likely to appoint a total of four new members to the seven-person court during the next year, thanked the Nominating Commission for their work and said the process of nominating new justices “will create a lasting impression for decades to come.”

In order to serve on the Florida Supreme Court, applicants must be lawyers or judges who have been members of the Florida Bar Association for 10 years. Each applicant was given a 25-minute interview.........

Florida Supreme Court applicants interviewed

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Wesley J. Smith weighs in on assisted suicide...

Thread by waggebee.

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I have become so sick and tired of the baloney that swirls around assisted suicide advocacy like gruel in a blender.

Assisted suicide is not really about the rare case when nothing else can be done to alleviate suffering--which has not been the case yet in any legalized jurisdiction from the Netherlands, to Switzerland, to Oregon. Rather, it is about establishing the right to what in essence would be death on demand.

This is clearly stated in a speech given by Ludwig Minelli, the suicide zealot who heads Dignitas...........

Assisted Suicide Backers Mislead the Public: Not About Alleviating Suffering

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More truth to counter the lies about birth control...

Thread by wagglebee.

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- If there is any place in the nation women can get free or low-cost birth control, it's New York City. But a new report indicates the abortion rate in the nation's largest city is three times higher than the national average despite the easy access to birth control and contraception.

While a survey from the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a part of Planned Parenthood, shows fewer than 20 percent of all pregnancies nationwide end in abortion, 72 pregnancies end in abortion in New York for every 100 births..........

New York City Has Extremely High Abortion Rate Despite Free Birth Control

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Terri and the misdiagnosis of PVS...

Thread by wagglebee.

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Yale neurologist Dr. Steven Novella and I have been involved in a vigorous discussion (example here) of the mind-brain problem in science and philosophy. There are real-world implications of our understanding of the mind, and nowhere are these implications more important than in the medical management of people with severe brain damage.

Dr. Novella recently posted a commentary on the Terri Schiavo case. Dr. Novella’s post was prompted by a study just published in the journal Neurology that analyzes the media coverage of the affair and offers suggestions as to how experts and journalists can convey the truth of such complex cases to the public more effectively. These are laudable goals.

The crux of the matter, of course, is this: what are the facts in the Schiavo case, and, more generally, what are the real issues involved in the diagnosis of persistent vegetative state (PVS)?

Dr. Novella and I see things quite differently.

I am a neurosurgeon, and I believe that the diagnosis of persistent vegetative state, in Ms. Schiavo’s case specifically and in other cases more generally, is of dubious validity.

"Persistent vegetative state," defined succinctly but accurately, is the denial of subjective experience in a brain-damaged human being. PVS is the medical assertion that a human being is an object, but not a subject.

PVS is the only modern medical diagnosis that denies the personhood of a patient, and thus is fraught with logical and ethical problems................................

Terri Schiavo's Death and the Misdiagnosis of a Persistent Vegetative State

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Please check out this thread by Daniel T. Zanoza with thanks for the ping to DJ MacWoW.

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The following was written by Bill Beckman:

We knew the push for living wills based on the Terri Schiavo case would be dangerous to people who took the bait. Recently, some cases are coming to light that confirm our fears about the dangers of such documents. A living will has nothing to do with living, but everything to do with dying...

How a Living Will can bring about your premature death

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A valuable lesson from India in this thread by wagglebee...

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NEW DELHI, India, August 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two years ago, Seema Sood, 37, in a letter to the President of India petitioned for "mercy killing," because she had suffered from advanced rheumatoid arthritis for 15 years.

President Pratibha Patil has now sent her a letter of a different sort, inviting Sood to "climb the steps of the majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan," the presidential palace.

"I am delighted to know that after a long period of 15 years you have triumphed over the despair of rheumatoid arthritis and are showing encouraging signs of recovery. With this resilience and spirit I am sure that the day isn't far when you will be able to walk again and come to meet me at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Periods of adversity in life are testing times for us. Do not regret the opportunities you have missed due to your illness. You should always look ahead for what you can do for yourself and for others like you who face adversity," the President wrote..........

Former Euthanasia Petitioner Receives Invitation from Indian President after Astounding Recovery

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A major argument used by the baby killers is that "what if raped..." Well here is what if! Thread by wagglebee.

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August 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - When sixteen year-old Elizabeth Cameron found she was pregnant after being brutally gang raped, "practically everyone" in her life said she had every moral and legal right to kill her daughter by abortion. But Elizabeth defied the world's wisdom and says, now that her daughter Phoebe is a toddler, that she could not imagine life without her.

"Every time I look at Phoebe, I know I made the right decision. I never wanted to end my baby's life just because of how she came to be," she told the Daily Mail this weekend..................................

"Why I Love the Baby of the Man Who Raped Me"

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[Dante3]

Thanks for posting this.

[Lesforlife]

Most encouraging article I’ve seen since Terri’s passing.

Prayers this generates some much needed honest discourse,
beyond the biased sound bite analysis seen to date.

[floriduh voter]

Terri Schiavo is dead because she spent $80 at the hair salon and wanted to get a divorce.

[floriduh voter]

Lauren Richardson website:
http://www.lifeforlauren.org/