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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Another ping to wagglebee's thread on our FRiend in need of prayers. It is updated.

Prayer Request for a FReeper and Her Husband [Good news Update in #133!]

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Mor on Kusch and Bettina in a thread by wagglebee...

ROME, JULY 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Advocates of assisted suicide continue to press their case in many countries. In Germany a former senator from Hamburg, Roger Kusch, released a video of him helping a woman commit suicide, reported Reuters on July 1.

Kusch advised Bettina Schardt on how to prepare a lethal mix of drugs that would kill her. Schardt, 79, was not suffering from any serious illnesses. Before helping her to die Kusch filmed 9 hours of conversation with Schardt, who said she dreaded being taken to a home for the elderly.....

Life in the Cross Hairs: Assisted Suicide Pressures Continue

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[Dante3]

Thanks for the update.

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Lauren Richardson update!

A big step is building in Delaware to save Lauren's life.

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Dover, DE (LifeNews.com) -- Last week, the Delaware House of Representatives approved a resolution supporting a disabled patient and her father, who is trying to keep her from becoming a euthanasia victim. The legislature backed Lauren Richardson, whose father and other family members continue to press her case.

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.

The Delaware House is backing Randy Richardson, Lauren's father, who is fighting to save her life and wants to be appointed as her guardian to ensure she receives appropriate medical care and treatment.

According to a WorldNetDaily report, it approved a measure saying "it is against the public policy of this state" to withdraw food and water from patients.

"It is against the public policy of this State and this State's interest in life, health and safety, for hydration and nutrition that is not harming a patient to be involuntarily removed from a non-terminal, apparently brain-incapacitated patient if doing so will cause the individual's death," the resolution reads.

The measure also says withdrawing food and water without a valid advanced directive from a patient is also a violation of the public policy of the state.

Meanwhile, Lauren's father issued a recent update on the family's web site about Lauren and his battle to protect her.

"Lauren herself has had some minor ups and downs but is doing pretty well. We are visiting her, interacting with her, and enjoying her life every day," he writes.

Richardson says the next chapter of the legal battle to protect his daughter is expected to unfold later this month.

"Lauren’s case is still ongoing and no decision has been made yet by the trial judge," Richardson adds.

"Some of the items on schedule in the court case in May and June occurred while others did not. We do not know what the upcoming schedule will be exactly, but at least some court-related activities will occur in July," he explains.

"All of this means that Lauren’s case is still hanging in the balance for a decision about whether she will be allowed to receive care and assistance from her loving family or whether she will starve and dehydrate simply because she has a disability," he continues. "Please continue to pray for Lauren and everyone involved in this case."

Randy Richardson is battling Edith Towers, Lauren's mother, who wants to remove her feeding tube and starve and dehydrate her to death in the same manner that Michael Schiavo subjected Terri.

Randy Richardson says, "Lauren’s mother, after convincing one Delaware judge to declare that she should be Lauren’s guardian, remains resolute in her assertion that Lauren is vegetative and cannot recover."

"Her mother has withheld authorization for any rehabilitative medical treatment and therapy for Lauren, and intends to have Lauren’s feeding tube halted" if his efforts to save her fail.

Richardson's family is calling on Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to intervene and save Lauren from an expected court order dictating her euthanasia 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.

Noted attorney and author Wesley Smith has written about Lauren's case and he says he viewed a video Richardson's father released and he says she seems reactive particularly when her father attempts to interact with her.

"Whether she is conscious or not is irrelevant to her equal moral worth as a human being," Smith adds.

"The fight in this case is over whether she lives as a profoundly disabled woman or is made to die slowly over two weeks by dehydration--as Terri Schiavo did," Smith explained. "If we did that to a dog, we would go to jail. Do it to a disabled woman who needs a feeding tube and it is called medical ethics."

ACTION: Contact Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner at governor.minner@state.de.us and ask her to help Randy Richardson save his daughter's life.

Related web sites:
Life for Lauren - http://www.lifeforlauren.org

Delaware House of Representatives Approves Resolution for Lauren Richardson

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Lauren again...

DOVER, Delaware, July 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Delaware House of Representatives has passed a resolution supporting Randy Richardson in his bid to protect the life of his 24-year-old daughter, Lauren Richardson,

Richardson, who at one time was the valedictorian of her high school class, suffered a brain injury after a heroine overdose in 2006, which left her severely handicapped. Doctors diagnosed Richardson, whose plight is being compared widely to that of Terri Schiavo, as being in a Permanent Vegatative State (PVS).

At the time of the accident Lauren was three months pregnant. After the birth of Lauren's child, her mother, Edith Towers, who is divorced from Lauren's father, and who gained legal guardianship over the girl, tried to have her daughter's feeding tube removed, thereby causing her death by dehydration.

Randy Richardson, however, has organized a desperate fight to protect his daughter from such a fate, bringing Lauren's story to the media, and initiating legal action to ensure that doctors do not remove Lauren's feeding tube. He claims that his daughter, while severely handicapped, is both responsive and not terminally ill. He has said that with therapy Lauren could be re-taught to eat, and would have no need of the feeding tube.

The Delaware House of Representatives responded to the case on June 30 by passing a resolution in support of Richardson.

The Resolution observes, "It is becoming increasingly apparent that persons who are suffering from severe brain injuries often have cognitive functions significantly beyond what medical science previously estimated."

The resolution then goes on to criticize the idea of "Permanent Vegetative State," a medical diagnosis that is frequently used to justify the decision to starve and dehydrate a patient to death. Most famously, Terri Schiavo was diagnosed as PVS, a diagnosis that Schiavo's family vehemently contested.
 
It "is also becoming increasingly apparent that the diagnosis of 'persistent vegetative state' or 'PVS' is a category that recent science shows is far more uncertain and overly broad than had been previously thought," said the House resolution, "including a high rate of misdiagnoses of PVS patients who have not been able to exhibit responses, but whose consciousness can now sometimes be measured with medical advances such as neuroimaging and drug treatment."

Hence, concluded the resolution, "Be it resolved… that it is against the public policy of this State and this State's interest in life, health and safety, for hydration and nutrition that is not harming a patient to be involuntarily removed from a non-terminal, apparently brain-incapacitated patient if doing so will cause the individual's death."

"Furthermore," continues the strongly worded resolution, "such withholding of hydration and nutrition without:  1) clear written direction from a legally competent patient or, 2) a valid written advance health-care directive that was previously executed by a patient who is now incapacitated and that either allows such withholding under such circumstances or grants an agent authority to make that decision by an incapacitated patient is also against the public policy of the State of Delaware."

The synopsis of the resolution specifically mentions Richardson, saying, "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."

Delaware House Approves Resolution Protecting Woman from Dehydration/Starvation

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Lauren remains in danger just as jackels would not leave a fallen prey that easily, the death team will not release easily their prize. We ask again Governor Minner, to do what is right.

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Haleigh Poutre update...

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SPRINGFIELD - A lawyer for Jason D. Strickland, the Westfield man accused of assaulting his stepdaughter Haleigh Poutre, is asking that his trial be moved to Berkshire or Franklin counties.

Saying Strickland cannot receive a fair trial here, Alan J. Black filed a motion in Hampden Superior Court seeking a change of venue for the Oct. 16 trial. As an alternative to moving the entire proceeding out of the Springfield court, Black suggested that jurors could be selected from the other counties and brought here to hear the case.

Black cited the intense pre-trial publicity and the nature of the offenses as reasons why an impartial jury could not be selected in Springfield. The Poutre case, in which the then 11-year-old girl was left unresponseive and brain-damaged, served as an impetus for a major overhault in the state's child care and protection services. 

~Snip~

In a related development, well-known defense lawyer Joseph A. Franco has been appointed by Judge Judd J. Carhart to represent the child's privacy interests regarding medical and psychological information in the Strickland case. Carhart is specially assigned to hear that case................

~Snip~

"The number of local articles and news stories is staggering," Black wrote. "Because this publicity has been maintained for almost three years, the public has likely been conditioned not only to link the defendant with these charges but to assume his guilt."

Haleigh Poutre abuse trial venue change sought

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Haleigh Poutre again...

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On July 1, the Legislature unanimously approved legislation to strengthen the commonwealth's ability to prevent child abuse and neglect. The process began two years ago when Speaker Salvatore DiMasi established a special commission to examine all aspects of the law pertaining to this subject. Serving on this commission, while heart-wrenching and emotional at times, was an honor for me.

We began by examining a report by the Committee on Post Audit and Oversight regarding the tragic case of Haleigh Poutre, who was allegedly beaten into a coma by her adoptive mother and stepfather in 2005 when she was 11. While deliberating the Poutre case, other stories made the headlines. A little girl died because her parents allegedly over-medicated her to qualify for Social Security disability benefits. Two young girls died in a fire while living at their mother's house; these girls were supposed to be residing with their grandmother. A little boy was found with cigarette burns and welts all over his body, allegedly inflicted by his mother's live-in boyfriend.

These cases brought an urgency to our deliberations, as well as a realization that even our best efforts to strengthen the law would not end the horror of abuse......................................

GUEST COLUMN: Safety net for kids tightened... BY REP. JOHN A. LEPPER

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I, for one, am grateful for the dogged coverage of Haleigh by The Republican. They stay on top of the details all the time.

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More on Haleigh...

Recently, State Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, spearheaded the unanimous passing of “Haleigh’s Amendment” though the Senate, prohibit a person from being appointed as a child’s guardian or medical proxy if the person has been charged with assault and battery that resulted in serious bodily injury to the child or neglect...

Child protection bill with governor

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On the surface, Brother Paul is unremarkable, but when he speaks, it is as Heaven takes over his voice, so powerful and clear his words ring. What a powerful voice he was on behalf of Terri!

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ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) -- A Catholic brother who cared for a brain-damaged fellow brother for more than 12 years urged activists in the pro-life movement July 5 to defend the rights of the disabled as vigorously as they fight for the unborn.

Brother Paul O'Donnell, a member of the Franciscan Brothers of Peace in St. Paul, Minn., spoke at a workshop session of the National Right to Life Committee's annual convention in Arlington.

He said he ran into conflict with health care professionals, even at Catholic facilities, as he sought appropriate care for Brother Michael Gaworski, founder of the Franciscan Brothers of Peace, who suffered a severe brain injury after he contracted a rare bacterial pneumonia at age 32....

Defend disabled, unborn with equal vigor, Catholic brother urges

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Jill Stanek on the Obama obfuscations in a thread by rhema.

A pro-life activist in Illinois says Barack Obama has repeatedly mischaracterized his opposition to the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act while he was a state senator.

Also note PhilDragoo's poster! The Federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act was signed into law in 2002 after receiving unanimous support from the U.S. Senate. The measure that forces hospitals to give medical care to abortion survivors -- if warranted -- even received the backing of liberal senators Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts ), Barbara Boxer (D-California), and Hillary Clinton (D-New York)....

Obama denies protection for infants of botched abortions [Jill Stanek rebuts Obama obfuscations]

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Obama is a lying baby-killer.

8 posted on Monday, July 07, 2008 2:25:08 PM by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)

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Obama is a lying baby-killer.

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It is in protest of that horrible Odor of Canada award recently discussed. I wonder if instead they showed the plastified corpses of humans and called it art...

Thread by wagglebee.

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CALGARY, AB, July 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - For the last four days, the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) cruised Calgary streets, with an 11-meter-long box-bodied truck displaying bloody photos of aborted human beings.   

Stephanie Gray, executive director of CCBR said this initiative is particularly important given the recent decision to award abortionist Dr. Henry Morgentaler the Order of Canada. In the wake of this controversial news, CCBR, known for its public display of graphic abortion images, has brought out its "Reproductive 'Choice' Campaign."

"Since Canada has chosen to bestow its highest civilian honour to an abortionist, we thought it fitting to show Canadians precisely what Henry Morgentaler is being honoured for," said Gray.

Gray told LifeSiteNews that the truck was well noticed, as it travelled down streets filled with the thousands of people attending the Calgary Stampede.............

Bloody Photos Hit Streets in Protest of Order of Canada Announcement

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May our prayers be with them...

Thread by wagglebee.

Cincinnati, OH (LifeNews.com) -- Leading pro-life African Americans are finalizing their plans to protest abortion at the upcoming national convention of the NAACP. The black pro-life advocates say they plan to point out how the civil rights group is unwilling to discuss how abortion disproportionately affects the African-American community.

As LifeNews.com reported exclusively last month, Rev. Clenard Childress, a New Jersey pastor, and a leader of the black pro-life group LEARN, says the protests will address the NAACP, abortion and Barack Obama.

His group, with the help of several other pro-life organizations, will hold signs at the entrance to the Duke Energy Center when the NAACP delegates gather next Monday....

Black Pro-Life Advocates Finalize Abortion Protest Plans for NAACP Convention

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Road to Congress dead ahead. Dr. Death wants to go to Washington.

Thread by wagglebee.

Royal Oak, MI (LifeNews.com) -- Elections officials in Oakland County have certified that assisted suicide crusader Jack Kevorkian has submitted enough signatures on petitions to qualify for the November ballot as an independent candidate. The certification comes on the heels of a victim's son confronting him.

Joe Rozell, the elections director in Oakland County, said on Monday that her office verified 3,200 signatures on petitions requesting his candidacy to appear on the November ballot........

Assisted Suicide Crusader Jack Kevorkian's Congressional Bid Certified

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[PhilDragoo]

Hence, concluded the resolution, "Be it resolved… that it is against the public policy of this State and this State's interest in life, health and safety, for hydration and nutrition that is not harming a patient to be involuntarily removed from a non-terminal, apparently brain-incapacitated patient if doing so will cause the individual's death."

"Furthermore," continues the strongly worded resolution, "such withholding of hydration and nutrition without: 1) clear written direction from a legally competent patient or, 2) a valid written advance health-care directive that was previously executed by a patient who is now incapacitated and that either allows such withholding under such circumstances or grants an agent authority to make that decision by an incapacitated patient is also against the public policy of the State of Delaware."

[Sun]

‘”it is against the public policy of this state” to withdraw food and water from patients.’

Food and water are ordinary means, not extraordinary means, as most of us know.

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Lauren Richrdson update...

Lauren again, with observations by Professor Pope. Thanks, Leslie, for the tip.

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The House of Representatives in my new state of employment, Delaware, passed a Resolution last week, resolving that "it is against the public policy of this State and this State’s interest in life, health and safety, for hydration and nutrition that is not harming a patient to be involuntarily removed from a non-terminal, apparently brain-incapacitated patient if doing so will cause the individual’s death."

House Resolution 75 finds that it is

becoming increasingly apparent that the diagnosis of “persistent vegetative state” or “PVS” is a category that recent science shows is far more uncertain and overly broad than had been previously thought, including a high rate of misdiagnoses of PVS patients who have not been able to exhibit responses, but whose consciousness can now sometimes be measured with medical advances such as neuroimaging and drug treatment.

Consequently, consistent with recent amendments to health care decisions acts in other states, the Resolution requires the patient herself either to have directed the removal of ANH or to have appointed an agent who directs the removal.

While the Resolution probably has no legal force, the House specifically mentioned in the Resolution that "[t]he 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."

Let's hope that the Delaware Legislature does not attempt to redirect the course or outcome of an already-adjudicated court dispute.

Posted by Thaddeus Mason Pope at 4:49 PM

Labels: ANH, Lauren Richardson, PVS

Delaware: Do Not Repeat the Mistakes of Schiavo

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More on Lauren...

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The Delaware House of Representatives passed a resolution last week establishing protections for mentally disabled individuals.

The legislative support comes as Randy Richardson is trying to protect his disabled daughter from having her feeding tube removed.

Lauren Richardson was three months pregnant when she suffered brain injuries in 2006. She breathes on her own, and her dad said she is aware of her surroundings, moves and feels pain.

But a Delaware court has given custody to Lauren’s mother, Edith Towers, who wants the feeding tube removed.

“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," Randy Richardson wrote on the family's blog.

He is calling on the governor to save Lauren from an expected court order dictating her death.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Visit our Issue Analysis Web site.

Good News: Delaware House Adds Protections for Disabled

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Haleigh Poutre update...

This comes once again from The Republican, the one source always on top of this case.

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BOSTON - Gov. Deval L. Patrick yesterday signed a law that overhauls the state's child welfare system.

Flanked by legislators and administration officials, Patrick approved a bill that imposes new rules for preventing abuse of children who have already received some contact with state social workers.

Legislators passed the bill on July 1. 

Patrick said the new law is a giant step forward.

"Nobody wants tragedies to repeat themselves," Patrick said at a Statehouse event. "No one does."

The new law was crafted in response to cases such as that of Haleigh Poutre of Westfield, now 14, who fell into a coma after a severe beating. Her adoptive mother and stepfather were charged with assaulting her.

Poutre is currently in a Boston rehabilitation hospital. She has been recovering and may testify against her step-father, Jason D. Strickland, who has pleaded innocent to assault and battery charges.

Her adoptive mother, Holli A. Strickland, died in what West Springfield police said was a murder-suicide with her grandmother.

Sen. Michael R. Knapik, R-Westfield, said the new law may contain enough safeguards to hinder future abuse cases similar to that of Haleigh Poutre.

"We're hopeful that enough measures have been put in place so you won't see these egregious cases occurring again," said Knapik, who attended the bill signing....................

Governor signs tougher child abuse law

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