Posted on 05/08/2008 3:14:03 AM PDT by 8mmMauser
LAUREN RICHARDSON - YOU CAN HELP! 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.
By Judie Brown
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A defense lawyer is seeking a venue change for the trial of Haleigh Poutre's stepfather, who's accused of beating her and causing brain injury in 2005.
Prosecutors have said they hope Haleigh, now 14 and living at a rehabilitation hospital in Boston, will testify at the Oct. 16 trial of Jason Strickland. Strickland has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and battery.
Once in Coma, Girl Expected to Testify in Court
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How is this commie pinko Stalinist Obamunist being accepted by Catholics?
In case visitors suspect I am harsh on him, maybe it is because I see this creature as an anti-Christ.
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We understand Barack Obama’s appeal. It’s almost impossible not to like him. Like his tireless supporter Oprah Winfrey, he has an air about him that exudes candor and sincerity and real concern. And those things aren’t insignificant.
In history, the direction of America has been changed by political leaders who have strong personalities that make their mark on the country: the noble Washington, Honest Abe, the sunny Ronald Reagan.
The difference, of course, is that the political leaders who changed the direction of the culture are men who share the nation’s founding principles and stick to them.
Douglas Kmiec, a Pepperdine University professor who made his name in the Reagan administration, at the University of Notre Dame and as dean of The Catholic University of America law school, says Obama is such a person, and so is supporting him for president.
He calls him a person of “integrity, intelligence and genuine good will” who “as best as it is humanly possible” will “respect and accommodate” those who disagree with him.
But Obama doesn’t just disagree with certain opponents. His record fundamentally disagrees with the nation’s founding principles...................
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Obama’s votes have him on record as believing that some people don’t have the right to life — not just the unborn, but those in the process of being born (he supports partial-birth abortion) and those who have been born accidentally during an abortion (he has helped preserve the practice of “live-birth abortion” ever since he was in the Illinois Legislature).
He also doesn’t think that alert but brain-damaged people like Terri Schiavo have the right to life — he calls voting to protect her the biggest mistake he made in the Senate....
PP covers the Obamanation with love. Thread by pinkbell and thanks to narses for the ping.
This news isn't a surprise. But it couldn't come at a better time for Barack Obama.
Planned Parenthood, the zealous advocate for abortion rights, said Monday night that it is throwing its full support behind the Democratic candidate....
Planned Parenthood endorses Obama (Surprise!)
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Physicians HATE not being able to give a diagnosis, so they will generally apply a "catch all" term for conditions they can't identify.
Twenty five years ago my appendix ruptured; however, it had encapsulated so the doctor didn't think I had an appendicitis. I was diagnosed with "gastroenteritis" which essentially means a gastrointestinal problem. Luckily for me, my condition continued to get worse and the doctor ordered another x-ray, otherwise I would have been dead from peritonitis.
Bring him down here to Virginia, or better yet Texas, his new "venue" should be somewhere that actually knows how to deal with excrement, Massachusetts will be letting him out on "weekend furloughs" in a year or two.
BUMP to #824. Email and phone calls have made a difference and can in this case also.
Perhaps Governor Patrick doesn't realize the reason for all the uproar and just missed focus. It wasn't that they missed an abuse case or two. In Haleigh's case, the State of Massachusetts agency, DSS, was trying to kill her.
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Governor Patrick says that when it comes time to assess the effectiveness of a new child welfare law, he hopes no news will be good news. That's because horrific child abuse cases make the headlines, but not the thousands more that are handled successfully. The bill signed during a Statehouse ceremony was sparked by a series of high profile child welfare cases, including that of Haleigh Poutre. As an 11 year old, she was allegedly beaten into a coma by her adoptive mother and stepfather. The centerpiece of the initiative is the Office of the Child Advocate. It's charged with investigating incidents involving children in state care. Another section of the bill requires mandated reporters such as social workers to report suspected cases of child abuse or face a $2,000 fine and up to two and a half years in jail.
GOVERNOR SIGNS NEW CHILD WELFARE LAW
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I suppose they find it humane and comforting to have this lady die in the agony of prolonged dehydration. It seems to be the fate of choice for the death crew.
Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- In a case that hearkens back to the international debate over the life and death of Terri Schiavo, a father in Italy has received permission from a court to take his daughter's life. Eluana Englaro has been in what doctors term a vegetative state for 16 years and has received food and water through a feeding tube.
Beppino Englaro, Eluana's father, has been seeking the right to remove the feeding tube and starve and dehydrate Eluana to death in the same way as Schiavo.
Schiavo's husband won that right after a years-long legal battle that made its way to the Supreme Court. Though she was able to interact with her parents and siblings, Schiavo died after a painful starvation death that covered nearly two weeks....
Italy Court Allows Man to Kill His Comatose Daughter, Similar to Terri Schiavo
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MILAN, Italy, July 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A young disabled woman in Milan may be euthanised by dehydration, an Italian appeals court has ruled. Eluana Englaro, 36, may have her "life support", that is, her feeding tube, removed as early as today. It is believed, however, that this will be delayed until the end of a 60 day waiting period in which the state has a chance to appeal the decision.
~Snip~
Englaro, who was not on a respirator, has been in a coma since being in a car accident in 1992 and has lived with the assistance of a feeding tube since then. Her father, Beppino Englaro, has been petitioning courts to remove his daughter's assisted nutrition and hydration since 1999. He told media today, "This is a victory for legal rights, at long last the end of the worst nightmare that any human being can experience. The judges made a courageous decision. Now, at last, we can set Eluana free."
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But in the UK they couldn't prescribe a more humane blast of a shotgun because guns are bad. Perhaps a bash with a bat would be more in order and certainly more humane than dehydration. Regardless, this piece makes it all sound like good news, something to celebrate.
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An Italian court yesterday issued a landmark ruling allowing a father to turn off the life support machine that has kept his comatosed daughter alive for 16 years.
The controversial decison to end the life of Eluana Englaro is the first such ruling by an Italian court. The judgement drew instant criticism from the Vatican, which condemned it as as "euthanasia"....
Italian man wins the right to end the life of his daughter after 16 years in coma
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AN Italian court ruled today that a road accident victim could be removed from life support after 16 years in a coma, drawing a swift rebuke from the Vatican, which said the ruling gave "de facto" justification for euthanasia.
The Milan appeal court that reached the decision said it was "inevitable" given "the extraordinary duration of (Eluano Englaro's) permanent vegetative state ... and her view of life".
The Milan court ruled that her coma was proven to be irreversible and that the young woman "would have preferred to die than being kept alive on artificial support".
Monsignor Rino Fisichella, head of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life, reacted by telling the ANSA news agency that the ruling justified "an act of euthanasia de facto" and should be challenged in a higher court.....................
Euthanasia ruling draws Vatican rebuke
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Perhaps Terri's Legacy helps unmask the ugly truths.
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.............Reaction from the Catholic camp was swift. The Bioethics Committee of Rome’s Catholic university hospital, which is controlled by the Vatican and reflects Vatican thinking, issued a statement declaring that “The interruption of food and drink will result in a slow death for Eluana Englaro, guilty only of being still alive. We must underline the gravity of this decision. It places in the hands of the guardian a power of life and death, undermining the principle that one must look after patients who are unable to think for themselves.”
Vatican outrage as Italian court rules comatose woman can die
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Italy: An appeals court in Milan granted a man's request to disconnect the feeding tube of his daughter, who has been in a vegetative state for 16 years, lawyers said. The case of Eluana Englaro has drawn comparisons in Italy with that of Terry Schiavo, the U.S. woman who was at the center of a right-to-die debate until her death in 2005.
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Thread by NYer. Thanks to TheSarce for the ping.
Well, It's official. Jack Kevorkian, Dr. Death, is on the ballot in Michigan in his run for the U.S. Congress....
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Thread by wagglebee.
A CNN reporter interviewing me a couple weeks ago about Barack Obama's opposition as state senator to the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act groaned more than once that this topic was "complicated."
She was referring to Obama's various explanations through the years for blocking Born Alive and lately his outright denial that obstructing legislation declaring live aborted babies legal persons had anything to do with endorsing their death.
I finally emailed her, "It is clear: Obama strongly opposed legislation to protect abortion survivors. This is horrible, so of course he will try to make it 'complicated,' but it is not."...
Jill Stanek: Botch an abortion? Obama would let baby die
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Thread by wagglebee.
BERLIN, Germany, July 8, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Deutche Welle reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken out in the strongest terms against euthanasia in the wake of the suicide of an elderly woman. Merkel, said that she is against "every form of assisted suicide," regardless of the circumstances.
Merkel's stance was echoed by Germany's Health Minister Ulla Schmidt. "I reject this path categorically," she said. "The correct path is to offer assistance to those who are dying instead of helping those free from terminal illness to commit suicide." ......
German Chancellor Merkel Opposes "Every Form of Assisted Suicide"
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See #147.
Prayer Request for a FReeper and Her Husband [Good news Update in #147!]
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It's a lot easier to convince the public that it is "humane" to take someone off "life support" than to simply acknowledge that you plan to starve and dehydrate them over a period of a couple weeks.
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