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.

[8mmMauser]

Over time we have covered the expansion of the "Living Will" industry in the hiatus following the death of Terri. Many have sought to sell it as a cure-all for any facing a similar fate, but we learned it is not that simple and can be a risky business. Alternatives to that permission slip can be found and we post sources from time to time like sources of Advance Directives from Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation...

Daniel T. Zanoza has a thread on this topic. Thanks, narses, for the ping.

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

The signs of confusion are pervasive and troubling. My legal clients ask, “Should I carry my Living Will with me, in case I’m in an accident while traveling?” A major newspaper story laments that “too often” Living Wills aren’t available “when decisions about life support must be made.” Retirement community residents are directed to keep Living Wills taped to their refrigerators, for quick and easy access. Credible stories are told of first responders and emergency room personnel withholding care from patients with Living Wills.

What’s wrong with this picture? ...

Living Wills: Signing Your Own Death Warrant? A Christian Lawyer’s Perspective

8mm

[8mmMauser]

The McCain Scrutiny....

It is a relief that he hasn't chosen either Tom Ridge, Curly, Moe, or Larry, so far...

Thread by wagglebee.

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

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- John McCain has reportedly confirmed he will not be picking a running mate who takes a pro-abortion position and has ruled out former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, who media outlets promoted as a possibility. McCain aides told Republican Party officials of the decision and they confirmed it to Fox News.

The aides and officials indicated that McCain “got the message” from pro-life advocates that picking an abortion advocate like Ridge was non-negotiable and could cost him votes.....

John McCain Will Not Pick Pro-Abortion Running Mate, Rules Out Tom Ridge

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Olympia, "It's the water..."

Thread by wagglebee.

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

Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com) -- A leading euthanasia opponent says the pro-life, medical and disability rights communities need to get engaged in the battle against a state measure that could legalize assisted suicide in Washington. If they wait any later to get energized, Alex Schadenberg says it may be too late.

Schadenberg heads up the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and the says the I-1,000 measure to make the state to second in the country to legalize assisted suicide is one of the most important votes this election cycle....

Euthanasia Opponent Worries Washington Will Approve Assisted Suicide

8mm

[8mmMauser]

This one struck me right in the gag reflex. Has the whole of the left coast gone mad?? Thread by wagglebee.

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

SAN FRANCISCO, August 19, 2008 (LifeSIteNews.com) - A lesbian woman in California has won a law suit in which she claims doctors at a fertility clinic discriminated against her based on her sexual orientation.

In a 7-0 decision yesterday, the California Supreme Court ruled that religious beliefs do not excuse doctors from the state's anti-discrimination law, which "imposes on business establishments certain antidiscrimination obligations."

"The 1st Amendment's right to the free exercise of religion does not exempt defendant physicians here from conforming their conduct to the . . . antidiscrimination requirements, even if compliance poses an incidental conflict with the defendants' religious beliefs," wrote Justice Joyce L. Kennard in the 18-page decision.

California Supreme Court Rules Doctors Must Provide Treatment against Their Religious Beliefs

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Oh, to watch this actually happen!

Thread by wagglebee.

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

Last month, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Raymond Burke, formerly the Archbishop of St. Louis, as the Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, which is the highest judicial authority of the Catholic Church besides the Pope himself. In an interview published in the current edition of the Italian magazine Radici Cristiane, Archbishop Burke addresses the issue which has caused great controversy among the hierarchy in the West.

In the interview, parts of which were translated by Catholic News Agency, the Archbishop noted first that pro-abortion Catholic politicians should be publicly corrected and told not to receive: and, if they persist, they should be denied. He spoke of dealing with "public officials" who contravene Divine and Eternal law such as "if they support abortion, which entails the taking of innocent and defenseless human lives."

"A person who commits sin in this way should be publicly admonished in such a way as to not receive Communion until he or she has reformed his life," the archbishop said. "If a person who has been admonished persists in public mortal sin and attempts to receive Communion, the minister of the Eucharist has the obligation to deny it to him. Why? Above all, for the salvation of that person, preventing him from committing a sacrilege," he added....

Head of Vatican's Highest Court: "Obligation to Deny Communion to Pro-Abortion" Politicians

8mm

[8mmMauser]

As we stand watch...

[wagglebee]

Oh, to watch this actually happen!

I would give ANYTHING to see a priest publicly refuse to give the Eucharist to one of them. I'm not sure if there is an actual procedure for this, but I suspect there is.

[floriduh voter]

The baby girl died per WND. At least it wasn’t a born alive Obama death.

[floriduh voter]

Obama has edge with disabled? LOL LOL LOL

Media propaganda keeps on giving.

[floriduh voter]

The truth about Terri's brain here:

www.terrisfight.org

NEVER let unethical doctors/pesonnel, sleazy lawyers and propagandist media define you! They front for the culture of death and the pay is really good.

[floriduh voter]

REMINDER: One of the biggest FR threads began in August of 2003 for Terri Schiavo when Judge Greer told Jeb Bush (Pontius Pilate) to take a hike so he could keep killing her on Mikey’s timetable. It’s on my links page if you’re interested. I think one of us should re=post that link. It was HUGH. Seriesly.

[Sun]

Thanks for the Haleigh Poutre update!

Prayers for Haleigh!

[8mmMauser]

We have a very close friend, a young traditional priest from Italy. I have seen him deny communion for cause. It is over in a flash, hardly noticeable to anyone not alerted by the reddened face of the recipient who was passed by. The person knows, the priest and server know, and few others as after all their minds would be absorbed in the event, not in watching the others.

In the Tradition, it is only the priest who distributes and he puts it on their tongue, not in their hands, and moves at a rhythm that passes them by so quickly it is hard to spot.

[8mmMauser]

Terri and PVS

This look at PVS comes from an article in Evolution News & Views. It is a lengthy read and a scholarly one.

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

This is the first in a series of posts in which I will discuss the medical and ethical aspects of persistent vegetative state (PVS). As I noted in an earlier post, I believe that the emergence of PVS as an accepted medical diagnosis is in part a consequence of the emergence of strict materialistic theories of the mind in the late 20th century, especially the theory called "functionalism," which is the theory that the mind is what the brain does, in the same way that running a program is what a computer does. If the mind is entirely caused by the brain, in a way analogous to the running of a software program on a computer's hardware, it stands to reason that there would be situations in which damage to the brain would cause the "mind program" to irreversibly crash. This leads to rather obvious ethical implications. Ideas have consequences, and the materialist understanding of the mind has had direct and disturbing consequences for the medical treatment of people handicapped by severe brain injuries. I will explore this connection between philosophy of the mind and clinical medicine in a future post.

PVS came to wide public attention with the death in 2005 by dehydration and starvation of Terri Schiavo, a young woman with severe brain damage caused by a cardiac arrest (probably from an electrolyte imbalance) in 1990. She died because her feeding tube was removed by court order at the request of her husband, who claimed that she had told him that she would have wanted to be deprived of nourishment under these circumstances. The deprivation of water and nourishment to a handicapped person, even with the pretext of accommodating that person's wishes, obviously raises ethical issues, and I'll discuss them in future posts. I'll address primarily the medical and neurological issues in this post.

~Snip~

The closer one examines the diagnostic issues involved in PVS, the more clear it is that PVS is in many ways a problematic diagnosis. The diagnosis of PVS relies entirely on the patient's ability to communicate internal mental states to the examining neurologist. Yet severe brain damage intrinsically limits the patient's ability to move and speak. Patients in whom the diagnosis of PVS is made are precisely those people in whom the assessment of mental state is most unreliable.

Furthermore, PVS is the only medical diagnosis that, by denying that the patient has a mind, denies the personhood of the patient. Thankfully, many people in PVS are still treated with respect as persons by their families and caregivers, but that respect is conferred despite, not because of, the diagnosis of PVS.

My interlocutor on this topic, Yale neurologist Steven Novella, has posted several essays in defense of what was done to Terri Schiavo. I'll address the issues he raised, such as the reliability of the diagnosis of PVS as well as Ms. Schiavo's autopsy findings and the ethical implications of the deprivation of food and water to people diagnosed with PVS in my next several posts.

Terri Schiavo and the Persistent Vegetative State

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Haleigh Poutre update...

I snipped this from an article about the upcoming proceedings by Buffy Spencer in "The Republican". Buffy Spencer has been following the plight of Haleigh Poutre closely.

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

Carhart accepted the proposal of Joseph A. Franco, who was appointed last month by Carhart to represent Haleigh's privacy rights, that the defense and prosecution can have all her medical records from about 15 providers from 1999 to the present.

All of those providers had been given notice of the hearing, but only representatives from three attended. There was no representative from Baystate Health System or the state Department of Social Services. Haleigh was taken to Baystate Medical Center after her initial hospitalization in Westfield.

The sensitive nature of the case showed in the specific parameters set by Carhart for who can see the records. Carhart denied Brandt's request to have a Westfield detective and a state police trooper see them.

~Snip~

Black said he would still like to argue his motion to change the venue.

Black said he is also requesting state Department of Social Services records for Samantha Poutre, 12, the child of Holly A. Strickland and Jonathan R. Poutre, whom she divorced before marrying Strickland.

"She's going to be a key witness in this case," he said. He said allegations of abuse of Samantha Poutre "popped up" about three months ago.

Brandt said that Jonathan R. Poutre had been given notice of Tuesday's hearing, which included the matter of Samantha's records. "He should be here today," Carhart said.

Court to assess Haleigh Poutre's competency

8mm

[8mmMauser]

A warning in The American Spectator...

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

THERE'S A MODERN FABLE written by Maurice Sendak in which an apathetic child named Pierre answers every question with the phrase, "I don't care." Eventually, Pierre responds that way when a hungry lion warns that he is about to eat him, and the young boy is promptly swallowed whole.

~Snip~

This should also be a concern for social conservatives. If government is the leading, or perhaps eventually the sole purchaser of health care, the state will be in the position of deciding who gets what kind of care--this is precisely how government-run systems control costs. The Terri Schiavo case was just a harbinger of the tragic scenarios that are likely to arise in the coming decades with the development of life-preserving technologies. It is quite easy to see how government control of the health-care system would put lawmakers in the awkward position of deciding who lives and dies in such situations by determining how long to pay the bills before pulling the plug...................

Learning to Care About Health Care

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Salisbury stakes...

Learning the looney left lexicon, one can perceive the idiotic thought process that passes as logic. Who but another goofy liberal could swallow this pattern and accept it? We have seen how propaganda suggests that decent Americans wanted innocents like Terri dead and abhorred any who would wish her life to continue. Here it is a step even further in suggesting that support is "extreme", radical.

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

Other reasons Lohmer might want to obfuscate her ties to Michele Bachman are Bachman’s extreme religious objectives. Will Lohmer adhere to the radical right with a Minnesota version (ala Matt Dean) of the Terri Schiavo forced feeding/artificial life support tragedy? Will Lohmer advocate for a Dover, Pennsylvania School Board religious right that illegally sought to teach Intelligent Design/Creationism in their children’s science classrooms? Will Lohmer continue the divisive hoopla about gays destroying the institution of marriage? Will Lohmer follow Bachmann opposing stem cell research?...............

Letter: Lohmer has ties to Bachmann

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Coming up in Denver! Thanks, EV!

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

DENVER, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Colorado Right to Life and American Right to Life will stand with black leaders from around the country at their Power in the Park rally and press conference on August 25, 2008, 8:30 am at Martin Luther King Park, one block from the largest Planned Parenthood abortuary in the nation.

The killing center, dubbed Auschwitz, by local opponents of the racist organization, is situated in north Denver’s minority neighborhood - consistent with the patterns of targeting minorities noted by Blackgenocide.org. Speakers include presidential candidate Dr. Alan Keyes with America’s Independent Party, Jessie Lee Peterson, president of BOND, Rev Clenard Childress of Blackgenocide.org, Flip Benham of Operation Rescue National, and Denver’s Bishop Phillip Porter, former chairman of Promise Keepers, who will expose the tragedy that although black women comprise 6% of the population, they receive nearly 40% of the abortions in America. The leading abortion providers exploit blacks by placing 94% of abortuaries in urban neighborhoods with high black populations........................

Black Pro-Lifers to Protest at DNC

8mm

[8mmMauser]

The McCain scrutiny...Let's hope so!

Thread by wagglebee.

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

WASHINGTON, August 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Fox News had many American moral conservatives very pleased yesterday with a report from unnamed Republican National Committee officials that "senior McCain advisers and aides have told GOP officials that McCain 'got the message' last week that choosing a running mate who supports abortion rights would not be helpful." The news came in reaction to an uproar from the Republican base after Senator John McCain floated the possibility of pro-abortion Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge as a potential running mate last week.

The message from the conservative base of the Party was voiced plainly by famed radio pundit Rush Limbaugh in his signature commentary yesterday. In a blast titled, "Choose Wisely, Senator McCain", Limbaugh pointed out that leftist pundits were promoting a pro-abortion pick for McCain knowing that it would lead to certain defeat as McCain would be abandoned by his base.

"They're just hoping for it because they know it's not just a few loudmouths in the base. They know the base will totally turn on McCain if this is the case," said Limbaugh. "It's about finding a way to persuade McCain to make a decision that will guarantee his defeat."...

Is it True McCain "Got the Message" About not Running a Pro-Abortion VP?

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Oh, who of the democratics is the most cold blooded killer! Tough choice for those who favor choice.

Thread by wagglebee.

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

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The wealthiest pro-abortion group in the country has flip-flopped on whether pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama can attract women voters to his campaign. Emily's List founder Ellen Malcolm said, during the Democratic Party primary, that wasn't possible. Now, she's changed her tune.

During the height of the Democratic primary in April, Malcolm wasn't so sure whether Obama had the capacity to match Hillary Clinton, whom her group endorsed, in terms of reaching women.

"I don't think we can answer that at this point," she said at the time. "I think one of the unanswered questions going forward in the primaries is whether or not Sen. Obama can close the deal with these voters." nat3865.html...

Pro-Abortion Group Emily's List Flip-Flops on Obama Attracting Women

8mm