Let Lauren Live!

ChristtheKingMaine ^ | May 7, 2008 | Judie Brown

[8mmMauser]

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.

[wagglebee]

They must have a lot of goats.

[floriduh voter]

Bye, bye, Rudy is on Wikipedia under free republic. I’m shocked Wikipedia left Terri Schiavo out but they were out of St. Petersburg, FL so she was probably omitted as just another kissup to the local circuit court judicial tyrants.

[floriduh voter]

I laugh when I see that posters at free republic are extremists. Uh, no. That would be the far left, the aclu and also the terrorists.

[floriduh voter]

ever hear of farce? look it up.

[philetus]

ever hear of farce? look it up.”

Mellow out dude, you’re way too tense.

[8mmMauser]

Hang on to your spare parts as Professor Pope shows in his blog. Thanks to LesforLife for the tip.

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

While we in the United States are working through some of the fuzzy edges of DCD, the Frenchand British are similarly struggling with NHBOD. The British Telegraph reported yesterday that a man whose heart had stopped beating woke up just as surgeons were about to remove his organs for donation.

Doctors in Paris earlier this year called in transplant surgeons after failing to resuscitate a 45-year old man believed to have suffered a massive heart attack in the French capital.

According to a report by the Paris university hospital's ethics committee - seen by Le Monde newspaper - doctors continued providing a heart massage for an hour and a half while they waited for the surgeons to arrive.

When the surgeons began operating on the man to remove his organs, he began to breathe, his pupils became responsive and he reacted to a pain test.

"After a few weeks chequered with serious complications, the patient is now walking and talking," said the report. It is not known whether the man is aware of how close he was to losing his organs.

The incident highlights the ethical problems doctors face in deciding when a donor is really dead.

Emergency service staff interviewed in the report said they knew of other situations where "a person who everyone was convinced was dead survived after prolonged re-animation moves well beyond usual timeframes or even those considered reasonable."

They pointed out that if they had followed the rules to the letter, such patients "would probably have been considered deceased."

In particular, the case is likely to ignite public debate over so-called controlled non-heart-beating organ donation (NHBOD) – retrieving organs when the heart stops, which has only been legal in France since last year. Before then a patient had to be declared brain dead before transplant could occur. NHBOD is legal in the UK.

"All specialised medical literature on the subjects allows one to conclude that a person who has suffered cardiac arrest and has had proper heart massage for over 30 minutes is, for all purposes, brain dead," said Professor Alain Tenaillon, in charge of organ transplants at France's biomedical agency. "But one must acknowledge that exceptions do exist ... there are no hard and fast rules on best practice," he told Le Monde.

Some 13,000 people are awaiting organ donations in France, a far higher number than in Britain, with 7,700 awaiting organs, despite France's a so-called opt-out system. This means everyone gives their "presumed consent" to having their organs removed after death unless either they have refused permission or if their family objects.

In the UK, people "opt in" to the donation system by carrying a donor card or signing the Organ Donor Register. A Department of Health task force is currently looking into the opt-out system.

Posted by Thaddeus Mason Pope at 7:57 AM

'Dead' man wakes as transplant surgeons prepare to remove his organs

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[8mmMauser]

Sam Golubchuk update...

The case has been moved from the back burner to the front in this just in. They want a hurry up killing, dang it. Already, the doctor assigned to the kill had stomped off in a tantrum because of the long wait to satisfaction. What is such a body to do?

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A Manitoba judge has moved up the date for a trial that'll determine whether an elderly Winnipegger should be kept on life support.

The case surrounding the care of Samuel Golubchuk was to start in December, but Court of Queen's Bench Justice Marc Monnin sided yesterday with an application from the Grace Hospital to move the trial up to mid-September.

The hospital says the task of caring for Golubchuk is taking a toll on staff, and one intensive care specialist has already stopped working rotations at the facility in protest.

Golubchuk, 84, has been on life support since last November and is relying on a feeding tube and a ventilator. Hospital officials decided last year to end Golubchuk's life support, saying he had virtually no chance of improving. But the Golubchuk family took the matter to court, saying the move would violate his beliefs as an Orthodox Jew.

Judge moves up Golubchuk case

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Karen Weber update...

Karen Weber is a fresh case for a pitch for advance directives, that's all.

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WTVG -- The Advance Care Planning Coalition says you need to make it clear who will speak for you if you can't.

A feeding tube keeps her alive. Her sister wants to keep her on it, but her husband does not. What you can do if it happens to you? The message is to talk to your family.

Karen Weber, 57, is caught in the middle of an emotional struggle and a legal battle. In December, a stroke left Weber partially paralyzed. She's currently in a Florida nursing home while her sister lives in Sylvania Township. She explains Karen can still laugh, cry, and nod yes or no, but that she can't live without a feeding tube.

Her husband wants to take her off it, but members of Karen's family have filed an injunction which temporarily prevents him from doing so. This type of conflict can be avoided with a living will. The Advance Care Planning Coalition says you don't need a lawyer. You just need to make it clear who will speak for you if you can't.  "And since there are different decisions that can be made, depending on a person's values, the more they tell their family ahead of time, and even get it in writing, the better that care will be," says RN Patti Beach.....

Advanced Care Planning Coalition

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[8mmMauser]

Harvard folk giggle as they repeat...

Bush is in a tight spot indeed. With Democratic strategists like Lockhart hopeful that the slew of blunders on Social Security has pierced the White House’s aura of political invincibility, Social Security may seem a harbinger of rough waters ahead for the GOP. The same Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found the Republican base splintering on a number of key issues, from reinsertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube to banning the use of filibusters on judicial nominees. Says Lockhart: “I think Democrats are in a wonderful position to sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.”

The Politics of Pensions

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Harvard has Terri on the mind today...as does Danforth.

Faith and Politics is also offers a tour of the “wedge issues,” and here Danforth is often at his best, illuminating each issue through the prism of his life experience. His powerful critiques of the Christian Right on the issues of stem cell research, religion in the public square, and the Terri Schiavo matter are worth reading in their own right. He writes movingly of his evolution on gay rights. Recalling a former staffer who broke down in tears because she was gay and feared his disapproval, he declares, “I know I want no part in the meanness that causes this kind of misery.” Danforth also offers ways in which we might work to return a sense of civility to politics, though one wishes that he had chosen a subject other than Clarence Thomas as the focal point of his chapter decrying character assassination.....

How to Defuse the Culture War

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[8mmMauser]

Oh no! Charlie makes Newsweak. How bad can it get?

The only problem? Crist hurts McCain more than he helps him. For starters, Florida already looks like a lock for McCain; he leads by 8.3 percent in the latest polls, and the state's senior citizens, Cuban-Americans, military families and Southern transplants provide the senator with a clear demographic edge over Obama--not to mention that Crist will campaign for McCain in the Sunshine State whether or not he's on the ticket. Secondly, Crist may be a social conservative on paper, but the Christian right is wary of him--to put it mildly. He pulled his support for the gay marriage amendment. He created a socialized insurance market in Florida. He speaks out against global warming. As attorney general, he refused to intervene in the Terry Schiavo debacle. And, worst of all, he was once pro-choice and, although nominally pro-life today, displays little enthusiasm for abortion issues. "It would be seen as a slap in the face to the Evangelical base," writes the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody. Conservative activist Jim Backlin has gone one step further. ""If the goal of the campaign is to shore up the base of the party, which is still critically needed, that pick would do exactly the opposite," he has said. "Many social conservatives, and conservatives in general, would sit on their hands this election." Needless to say, McCain can ill-afford to further alienate the right wing of the Republican party. Finally, Crist is unmarried, having divorced in 1980 after a year of marriage, and his swinging singledom has been the subject of much speculation, including (somewhat conflicting) rumors of homosexuality and an out-of-wedlock child. Crist denies the charges--both completely unproven--but, as a conservative commentator Michael Medved notes, "such reports... would receive lavish and detailed press coverage the moment Crist appeared on a ticket with a very real chance that stories about his dating life over the last 28 years would drown out serious discussion of his accomplishments."

After his trip to Sedona, Crist told reporters that he "ate too much, had some great chicken, great barbecue.'' He should treasure the memory--because it doesn't look like McCain will be serving him desert anytime soon..........

The McCain Veepwatch, Vol. 3: Charlie Crist

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[wagglebee]

The ONLY bright spot I can envision in a McLame presidency would be a concervative VP. I think there is a strong possibility that health reasons would prevent him from seeking reelection in 2012 and it would go a long way to take a lesser known conservative and promote them to national prominence. I think the PERFECT person is Sarah Palin of Alaska.

[8mmMauser]

Here is an important item, also a separate thread by wagglebee.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Americans will have an opportunity to review the life and death of Terri Schiavo tonight and next week as the television program a disabled woman produces will focus on how Terri was subjected to a painful euthanasia death. Joni Eareckson Tada, whose ministry produces "Joni and Friends," is behind the show.

Like Schiavo, Tada is a disabled woman herself -- having become paralyzed at a younger age in a diving accident.

Tada has put together two 30 minutes programs airing tonight and July 19 that will explore the debate surrounding Terri and be broadcast globally via Trinity Broadcasting Network........

Disabled Woman's National Television Show Will Focus on Terri Schiavo

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[8mmMauser]

The only bright spot I can see in a Grouchy Marx presidency is a slower collapse of our country than with Karl. It would sure sweeten the sour to have someone like Gov. Palin on board.

[8mmMauser]

Buck up, Gov. Minner. Lauren needs you.

[Etixos]

Wikipedia covered the Schiavo debacle thoroughly; but since the event was of nationwide interest, it did not center its coverage around what was posted on any one chat board.

Main

Public Opinion and Advocacy

Table of Category Contents

Best,
Etixos

[floriduh voter]

Scuse me. We weren’t CHATTING as you put it. You’re just trying to be smarmy but in a polite way.

[floriduh voter]

LIFELINE PROGRAM: BOBBY SCHINDLER & SUZANNE VITTADAMO ON THE RADIO SATURDAY AFTERNOON... (Terri's siblings).

Don't forget to tune into America's Lifeline on Talk Radio 860 WGUL this Saturday, June 14th at 3pm, ET. America's Lifeline is also streamed worldwide via the internet at Talk Radio 860 WGUL. For those outside the Tampa area, simply log onto terrisfight.org and click on the 860 TALK RADIO LOGO button.

This Saturday our special guest will be Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer. Father Euteneuer is the president of Human Life International (HLI) - the world's largest pro-life organization with affiliate offices and associates in eighty countries around the world.

Father Euteneuer's pro-life activity began in the early years of his priesthood and he has spoken directly to tens of thousands of people all over the world spreading the Gospel of Life as well as making many appearances on local and national television. Father's now-famous Fox News interview with Sean Hannity on the subject of contraception has merited him both praise and criticism for his defense of Church teaching.

http://www.terrisfight.org or 860 WGUL Tampa Bay.

[floriduh voter]

New lyrics: The trolls still-ill here are blowin’ in their wind, they’re blowin’, blowin’ in their own wind. (hey, I had novacaine today I tried).

[8mmMauser]

Karen Weber update, this one from Bobby Schindler in Town Hall...

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Recently, yet another situation similar to that of my sister Terri Schiavo has made headlines. In West Palm Beach, Florida, Raymond Weber is asking the court to dehydrate his disabled wife, Karen, to death.

If you have read any of the reports in mainstream media, it’s just another case of a husband looking out for the “best interest” of his spouse. And just as in Terri’s case, Raymond Weber is asking the government to deliberately kill his wife who is not dying and is guilty of nothing more than having difficulty swallowing and therefore needing help, in the form of a feeding tube, to eat.

Not surprisingly, in a story by the AP, was a quote from the husband’s attorney who so touchingly referred to his client’s brain-injured wife as a “vegetable,” thus offending the tens of thousands of people and their families who do live with a profound brain injury.

The reporter also wrote that the decision whether Karen should live or die will depend upon whether or not a committee finds her “competent” to go on living. Yes, that is correct, competent enough to live. I guess passing an IQ test will be next.

Factors such as what is being taught in our medical schools, the breakdown of our health care system, the powerful influence of assisted suicide organizations, and the propaganda of our mainstream media have taken their toll.

As a result, the physically and mentally “inferior” are being denied the most basic care—food and water—in our nation’s medical facilities every day. (Thank goodness we have laws making it a felony if we do the same to an animal, although I would expect there would be a greater outcry if it were the family pets at risk.)

Equally as disturbing is the fact that our politicians, including our two presidential candidates, ignore this issue and because of it are failing in one of the most important responsibilities they have as leaders—to protect our most vulnerable citizens.

Perhaps our general public doesn’t have a clue as to how widespread this problem is in our nation today. This ignorance is in large part because of a stealth and powerful lobby who support patient dehydration based on quality of life judgments. This has slowly but surely changed our laws regarding food and water. Nutrition and hydration through a feeding tube, once considered basic care, are now recognized as “artificial nutrition and hydration”—and therefore a form of “medical treatment.” Continued...

Competent Enough to Live

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