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]

Perhaps it was inevitable, and something the great enemies of Our Lord thought would slip through.

More and more I find myself dreaming of just buying a small island in the middle of the Pacific and just forgetting about the increasingly depraved world we are living in.

[wagglebee]

Today, Newsweak is bringing up a cluster of past stories all relating to Terri. Rather than summarize this large source, I suggest Google News on Schiavo today.

Newsweak is not just doing this for no reason.

This is some sort of "trial balloon" to see what public opinion is today.

This IS NOT good news, if they get the reaction they hope for, they will make another push for legalized murder nationwide.

[wagglebee]

And I have NO DOUBT that T’wit and Terri are also lovingly looking down on our dear FRiend.

[8mmMauser]

Man50D has a thread by Robt. Unruh of WND on the topic we posted upthread.

Legislator: Law allows banishment of Bible

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[Dante3]

Prayers.

[8mmMauser]

Mrs. Ellen Westwood was rescued from the grim reaper team!

The same relentless monotonous march of the grim death enthusiasts continues like crab grass. Relent for a moment and it overwhelms. Thread by wagglebee.

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BIRMINGHAM, UK, July 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "Ellen Westwood was due to die in February but her family's Catholic and for them, life is sacred." So begins the television coverage by the BBC of a battle by a Birmingham family to prevent the NHS from dehydrating their mother to death.

According to the BBC's report, doctors decided on a Friday in February that Mrs. Westwood was "due to die" by the following Monday, but the family, with the intervention of their priest, fought the order to remove the woman's hydration.

Mrs. Ellen Westwood, 88, was in Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital for two months after she had been admitted into Birmingham's Royal Orthopaedic Hospital for routine shoulder surgery. The woman ended up being treated for dementia and C.difficile, which Westwood's daughter alleges she contracted at the Orthopaedic Hospital after the surgery. The bacterial infection soon spread to her cheeks, face and throat, making it difficult for her to swallow.

Doctors at Selly Oak Hospital then told the family that all food, fluids and hydration were to be stopped and that Mrs. Westwood would be given morphine "because she is dying".

Ellen's daughter, Kathleen Westwood, told the BBC that the decision had been taken because it was "a capacity ruling" and that under current UK law, the family's wishes do not enter into the equation.

"If you deem somebody to have lost capacity, then the doctors can act in the best interests," she said.

~Snip~

While active euthanasia officially remains illegal in Britain, some are saying that the NHS standard procedure of issuing elderly and vulnerable patients with an "end of life plan" that includes dehydration, is simply euthanasia under a different name. And it is becoming common. A packed meeting this week in Stafford organised by a group called Cure the NHS, heard the stories of families who had been forced to bring in priests and lawyers to stop similar orders from killing their loved ones, even though the patients sometimes are not terminally ill.........................

Elderly Woman Rescued by Family from NHS Dehydration Order

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[8mmMauser]

Archbishop stands up to Canada's dishonorable honor. Thread by tcg. Thanks, narses, for the ping.

"No person may presume to judge the soul of Henry Morgentaler," wrote Archbishop Collins, "but it cannot be denied that the effect of his life's work has been a deadly assault upon the most helpless among us."

He said that with this appointment, Canada honors "a medical man who has brought not healing, but the destruction of the defenseless and immeasurable grief. This award must not stand."

Archbishop Collins asked all people of good will to protest of "this act of dishonor," and "ask that this action be revoked." ....

Archbishop: Honoring Canadian Abortionist is Debased

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[8mmMauser]

This is pulled from an article on Obama by The American Spectator. Note, this conservative website is marked as dangerous by Google. Anyway, it is the Obamunist versus Terri et al.

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USING HIS PASSIVE, forked-tongue style, in which run-of-the-mill political cowardice masquerades as pained honesty, Obama writes in The Audacity of Hope that restricting his support to gay civil unions might appear unenlightened in time: "in years hence I may be seen as someone who was on the wrong side of history."

Perhaps an even better example of wimpy signaling is this passage: "I was reminded that it is my obligation not only as an elected official in a pluralistic society, but also as a Christian, to remain open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided."

He seems very eager to be wrong. Perhaps he will acknowledge his hanging back on gay marriage as a serious failing in a future debate, next to his insufficient enthusiasm for Terri Schiavo's dehydration and his untidy desk, failings disclosed in previous debates with Hillary Clinton.......

Wedding Belle

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[8mmMauser]

Commentary by Professor Pope on a useful book on care for the critically ill. Thanks, Leslie, for the tip.

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Robert Martensen, an NIH historian, has a new book coming out titled A Life Worth Living A Doctor's Reflections on Illness in a High-Tech Era. It is written not so much as an academic treatise as much as a practical handbook.

Martensen observes that "critical illness is a fact of life. Even those of us who enjoy decades of good health are touched by it eventually, either in our own lives or in those of our loved ones. And when this happens, we grapple with serious and often confusing choices about how best to live with our afflictions."

Martensen connects personal stories with reflections upon mortality, human agency, and the value of “cutting-edge” technology in caring for the critically ill. "Timely questions emerge: To what extent should efforts to extend human life be made? What is the value of nontraditional medical treatment? How has the American health-care system affected treatment of the critically ill? And finally, what are our doctors’ responsibilities to us as patients, and where do those responsibilities end? Using poignant case studies, Martensen demonstrates how we and our loved ones can maintain dignity and resilience in the face of life’s most daunting circumstances."

Posted by Thaddeus Mason Pope at 12:50 AM

A Life Worth Living

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[8mmMauser]

Read this link if you dare, with due caution, not before eating, and learn of why a baby RINO became a libertarian candidate because of Terri. It shows a mind set of those who lean his way. It is so confusing which is which, libertarians and librarians...

With regard to his former Republican ties, Root tells our editor that two main decisions squeezed him out. One was the debate over Terry Schiavo, the brain dead woman whose final moments played out in Congress and the Supreme Court. The second factor, which hit much closer to home, was the Republican-led Congress’ decision to ban online poker. Like a true Libertarian, Root believes the government should have as little involvement in people’s personal lives as possible. What’s more, the ban on online gambling struck through the heart of his American ideal:....

Libertarian VP Hopeful Wayne Root Seeks End To Two-Party Topping, “Legal Bribery”

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[8mmMauser]

I am sure the writer is serious and writing this and perhaps fancies himself as original in rattling of a salvo of lefitist playbook phrases. Regardless, it illustrates symptoms manifest in this terminal illness called liberalism.

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This past week’s Supreme Court ruling, invalidating Washington, DC’s handgun ban, demonstrates just how far afield “movement conservatism” has taken our country. For that, we have an irresponsible Republican Party to blame; tragically, real people will have to pay dearly.

For years now, the GOP has embraced crackpot conservative theories for political advantage. “Trickle-down economics” helped convince middle-class voters to support reckless tax cuts for the wealthy. Global-warming denial was dreamed up and propagated by corporations who wished to avoid regulation. Myths of a “war on Christmas” and doomsday consequences of same-sex marriage have pulled evangelical Christians to the voting booth to elect Republicans.

Firmly held, irrational, absolutist beliefs may be good short-term politics, but they make for terrible policy — somewhere along the way, the political right lost control of the distinction. Ever since Congress subpoenaed Terri Schiavo’s vegetative body, it’s been clear that the Republican Party is being ruled — and destroyed — by right-wing nut cases..............

Crackpot court Taking a shot at the Supreme Court’s recent gunplay

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[8mmMauser]

I always find the writing of Jill Stanek to be compelling. Here, she writes in WND about Obama and killing kids. Thread by wagglebee.

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On June 25, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked conservative commentator Bill Bennett what question he would ask Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama if he could.

Bennett said he would ask Obama:

Why are you to the left of NARAL, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein when it comes to abortion? Are you really there? ... I got to question the guy's moral judgment who doesn't see a problem with killing a baby after it's been born. … What is the answer to that question?

Bennett was speaking about Obama's opposition to Illinois' Born Alive Infants Protection Act as state senator. This legislation declared all live babies legal persons, which would guarantee them the right to appropriate medical care, even if abortion survivors.......

Jill Stanek: Obama's biggest lie about supporting infanticide

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[8mmMauser]

We continue our watch.

[jy22077]

http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/

http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis144.nsf/vwLegislation/HR+75/$file/legis.html?open

Spread this far and wide and contact the Delaware Governor as well as Delaware Senators and have them support this legislation today.

[8mmMauser]

Lauren Richardson update...

Thanks to jy22077 for the tip. Please all note the post above and the second link as well!

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The Delaware House of Representatives has passed a resolution in support of protecting the life of Loren Richardson, who like Terri Schiavo before her, is the subject of a bitter court fight over removing her feeding tube. The resolution states:

This Resolution establishes protections for mentally disabled individuals in the State of Delaware. The impetus for this Resolution comes from the case of Lauren Richardson, a 24-year-old Delaware woman who, after suffering brain injuries and impaired consciousness, now faces the possible removal of her nutrition and hydration, despite the absence of her clearly specified and legal consent to any such a course of action. The State of Delaware has, through recent legislation prompted by the abuses at the Delaware Psychiatric Center, endeavored to protect the rights of mentally disabled patients in the First State. Lauren, as a mentally disabled person, is enumerated those same protection and rights.

Too many of us dismiss people like Lauren--and I am not referring here to her mother who wants treatment stopped--as "vegetables" (a word that should not be used as it is as demeaning and dehumanizing as the odious N-word), "brain dead" (as the Orlando Sentinel unrepentantly did for so long regarding Terri), or other such denigration. Meanwhile, some bioethicists look longingly at these people as "living cadavers" who can be harvested for their organs or used in medical experimentation.

Good for the Delaware Assembly for not shrinking from such demagoguery.

Labels: Lauren Richardson.

Good: Delaware Didn't "Learn the Lesson" of Schiavo

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[8mmMauser]

Governor Minner, We ask your support!

[8mmMauser]

Ping to the prayer thread for our FRiend. Wagglebee has posted an update on #102.

Prayer Request for a FReeper and Her Husband [Update in #102]

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[PhilDragoo]

Hussein is allowed to claim he is a Christian despite his vicious insistence that babies who survive botched abortions must die writhing in a pan.

There is no clearer antithesis to Christ's message than that of Obama.

Send in the anti-Christ--wait, don't bother--he's here.

[floriduh voter]

www.drudgereport. NOW the manchurian candidate is flip flopping on abortion. He’s going to lose his hard left constituents if he doesn’t stop lying and misrepresenting.