Posted on 02/01/2008 2:51:57 PM PST by Pyro7480
A Delaware woman has become the next Terri Schiavo as her parents engage in a massive legal and philosophical debate about whether to subject her to euthanasia. 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.
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.
Edith Towers, Lauren's mother, wants to remove her feeding tube and starve and dehydrate her to death in the same manner that Michael Schiavo subjected Terri.
Towers claims Lauren would never have wanted to live as a permanently disabled person, but Lauren, as with Terri, did not have a living will or other advance directive spelling out her treatment wishes. She claims Lauren told her during Terri's battle that she would not want to live like her.
On the other side is Randy Richardson, Lauren's father is fighting to save her life and wants to be appointed as her guardian to ensure she receives appropriate medical care and treatment.
"She's committed no crime and doesn't deserve to have this death imposed on her," Richardson told the News Journal newspaper on Wednesday. "We just want to give her a chance."
Lauren no longer uses a ventilator or other breathing apparatus and is not on artificial life support -- something Randy contends is showing progress.
Towers is winning the legal battle in court as she was awarded guardianship of Lauren, but Randy Richardson has filed an appeal.
The News Journal indicates Delaware Court of Chancery Master Sam Glasscock III has put any action taking Lauren's life on hold while the court reviews the guardianship ruling -- a process that could take as much as three months to complete.
Regardless of the decision, an appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court is expected.
Randy Richardson also has other concerns about his daughter and says that Towers, his ex-wife, has not allowed Lauren's baby to see her.
Richardson and the Delaware Pro-Life Coalition released a video on Wednesday that shows Lauren at a nursing home reacting to family members and a dog.
The pro-life group also organized a prayer vigil near the Arbors Rehab Center in New Castle.
“He who stoops to conquer conquers stupes.” ... Pogo
WONDERFUL picture!!!
It looks like OJ got sick of Michael Schiavo getting all of the attention down in Florida:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1972180/posts
Wow!!
Perfectly melds 2 of God’s stunning
creations into 1 priceless image.
OJ denies he beat up his girlfriend last week - creepy how much she looks like the wife he murdered. She ended up with serious injuries in hospital not consistent with the fall she claims.
This month the sad case of Lauren Richardson made headlines. The similarities between her situation and my sister Terri Schiavo's are striking and deeply disturbing. Lauren suffered a profound brain injury in 2006, leaving her dependent on others for her care. Like Terri, she is not hooked up to machines, is not comatose and is unquestionably very much alive.
As in Terri's case, a judge, based on hearsay evidence that this is Lauren's wish, has decided to err on the side of death and starve and dehydrate this young woman until she dies. The judge is also convinced that Lauren is in the often wrongly diagnosed (and offensively named) condition known as "persistent vegetative state" (PVS). Unfortunately, some in the media have already begun their campaign to justify Lauren's needless and heartless dehydration.For example, recently on the Fox News Channel program "Hannity & Colmes," co-host Alan Colmes incorrectly referred to this brain-injured girl as being "brain dead" — a tactic often used by dehydration supporters in the mainstream media to dehumanize Terri throughout her ordeal.
As was the case with my sister, you will soon undoubtedly see the media drumbeat begin: "Just allow this woman to die," in order to somehow convince the general public that it is "right" to "end this poor woman's suffering." (Never mind the statement's inherent contradiction: if she is truly unconscious, she is not suffering.) However, Lauren is not dying, does not have a terminal disease and her brain injury is not killing her. Just like the estimated tens of thousands of persons in similar conditions, Lauren is only being sustained by the same thing we all need to live — food and water. And there is a loving father willing and wanting to care for his daughter.
bttt
Please feel free to right click the jpeg and save it on your hard drive. That way, you can email it to your friends, family, organizations, churches and legislators.
Hard to believe OJ’s love interest fell at a gas station. Slipped on oil? Tripped over gas hose? I doubt it. Do you remember that she was in jail or out of town and her pet cat starved to death? That was a few years ago.
I had not heard about the cat.
Yeah, the cat was shut in her place and died of hunger/dehydration.
Why any woman would even consider dating OJ is beyond me.
I have wondered the same thing. Could be she has an exceptionally low IQ combined with greed for his money? Or maybe she is mentally ill? What normal woman would want anything to do with him?
I don’t know, but my guess is that she is REALLY stupid and probably mentally ill. The reality is that OJ doesn’t have that much money, sure he’s rich but not by south Florida/LA/Vegas/NYC standards. If a woman is good looking enough to considered “trophy” wife/girlfriend material and all they care about is the money, then they can find someone a lot richer than OJ who’s not a violent psychopath.
In her defense, I don't think it was intentional.
First of all, she's dumb enough to date OJ, so she probably lacks the common sense required to take care of anything other than her hair, makeup, surgically-enhanced cleavage and diet. She makes your average dumb blond look like a nuclear physicist.
(Oh yeah, I am WELL AWARE that if I had made these comments on any other thread than this one, I would be labeled a chauvinist and any of the remaining harpies would be hitting the abuse button and howlin up a storm!)
Yeah, anybody who would be attracted to an OJ Simpson is what you could call a golddigger who had to settle for the bottom of the barrel. Her chaotic life is one reason that cat ended up dead. Is SHE saying she fell at a gas station or is she unconscious? Did 9-11 pick her up at the gas station? I don’t know much about her fall but I know she has severe head injuries.
I’m not really sure of the details other than that it’s being reported that her injuries are far more consistent with physical abuse than a fall.
I wonder if the care of the baby might be the reason someone would want her out of the picture. There are certain governmental, financial benefits to those whose parents have died.
Reminds me of the large bare cross my friend and I could no longer place in the support hole dug for it. On Holy Saturday, the police forbade us from putting it there so we had to hold it up by hand. It was heavy, quite a strain, but soon Christians from all around came to help hold it up by hand all day long.
May it never be lost in history, the stunning symbolism of all unfolding along with Easter...
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