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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Samuel Golubchuk, R.I.P.

Follow on...

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Neil Kravetsky, the lawyer for the family, said that while Golubchuk’s fate   wasn’t sealed by a final court ruling against the hospital, in essence, the World War II veteran won his case.

“Mr. Golubchuk won. No one took him off life support. He died when his time had come, not when a doctor succeeded in pulling him off. He went on to live another seven months after he was supposed to be at death’s door… Sam went to his maker when his maker was ready,” Kravetsky said.

Golubchuk’s daughter, Miriam Geller, said, “The final decision was God’s decision, not what the doctors wanted.”

Kravetsky, who spoke at the funeral and was also a pallbearer, added “Sam Golubchuk in his life was a fighter who fought for his country and for democracy… He believed that one of the most important things was the right to freedom and the freedom to choose. I believe that Sam Golubchuk fought for democracy in his life and he fought for democracy in his death.”

Kravetsky said that there “are hundreds of thousands of people who will remember the name Sam Golubchuk.”...........

Winnipeg man in life support controversy dies

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Harriet McBryde Johnson, R.I.P.

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Harriet McBryde Johnson

On June 4, 2008, we lost a great American civil rights leader, Harriet McBryde Johnson. Harriet died at the age of 50 and was a well-known disability and civil rights attorney who fought for the right for life over death for Americans with disabilities.

I could easily write an obituary of Harriet's life as her accomplishments are many. But instead I will do what she would have done—what she always did—and take this opportunity to educate and to further her cause.

Harriet McBryde Johnson, a brilliant attorney, was a woman with spinal muscular atrophy. Her power came from her words, spoken and written, for those who she felt were being denied the choice of living.

In February 2003, Harriet graced the cover of the New York Times Magazine. The article, Unspeakable Conversations, discussed her meeting with Peter Singer, a professor of bioethics at Princeton University, who made the inflammatory statement, “It does not seem quite wise to increase any further draining of limited resources by increasing the number of children with disabilities.”

What Singer was advocating was what Harriet railed against. She said, “Singer believes that it should be lawful under some circumstances to kill, at any age, individuals with cognitive impairments [as he considers their condition] so severe that he doesn’t consider them persons.”

“He simply thinks it would have been better, all things considered, to have given my parents the option of killing the baby I once was, and to let other parents kill similar babies as they come along and thereby avoid the suffering that comes with lives like mine, and satisfy the reasonable preferences of parents for a different kind of child.”

Not one to miss an opportunity, Harriet went to meet with Singer in person to debate the issue of the choice of aborting children with significant disabilities.

When I first read about Harriet, I was impressed with her courage and her determination to succeed. And then I felt great shame. Why are we people with disabilities accepting this fate? Why isn’t the world outraged?

Yet, there are those in the world who share her passion.
 
Diane Coleman, the Founder and President of Not Dead Yet, has and does speak out daily on this issue. She is another great champion of preserving the choice of life for people with disabilities. She shares the same disability as Harriet, and she is also an attorney and formidable opponent to the euthanasia cause. Not Dead Yet’s website is www.notdeadyet.com.

Andy Imparato, from the American Association of People with Disabilities (www.aapd.com), and his associate, Anne Sommers, have also spoken out on this issue. They had a great editorial in the Washington Post on May 20, 2007 entitled Haunting Echoes of Eugenics. In it, Andy and Anne talk about the fact that today over 80 percent of pregnancies diagnosed with Down syndrome end in death, and that this outcome is accepted and often encouraged.

Several years ago, I read a great book recommended by the American Association of People with Disabilities entitled, War Against the Weak, by Edwin Black. I remember stating to several of my friends, “Why didn’t I read this in history class.” War against the Weak, is about eugenics and connects the horrifying atrocities of World War II with the early 20th century eugenics movement in the United States. Edwin Black also talks about the correlation between eugenics and genetics, and about what he refers to as NewGenics. He states, “…newgenics will create an uninsurable, unemployable, and unfinanceable, genetic underclass.” This is what Harriet McBryde Johnson fought against her entire life.

Harriet was an advocate of those who could not speak for themselves. She spoke out for the life of Terry Schiavo and stated, “This is not about end-of-life decision-making. The question is whether she should be killed by starvation and dehydration.”

If we have those endorsing death over disability, what message does that send? It certainly does not imply that employment of a person with a significant disability is desirable. Pondering that thought makes you understand why there is a 65 percent unemployment rate for Americans with significant disabilities.

Harriet believed that if we did not stop the madness of considering death over disability, it could become a way of dealing with those not desirable. She pointed out that the best and brightest in philosophy or bioethics at Princeton and other places of learning could be taught to think of people with disabilities in a horrible way.

Singer’s book, Rethinking Life and Death, had a passage reprinted in 2000 in Writings on an Ethical Life. These two books are used in high schools and colleges when teaching bioethics. Here is the horrifying passage that so much reminds us of what Harriet was speaking out against:

“To have a child with Down syndrome is to have a very different experience from having a normal child. It can still be a warm and loving experience, but we must have lowered expectations of our child’s ability. We cannot expect a child with Down syndrome to play the guitar, to develop an appreciation of science fiction, to learn a foreign language, to chat with us about the latest Woody Allen movie, or to be a respectable athlete, basketballer, or tennis player.”

Harriet spoke at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in March 2006, on “Deadly Medicine” a disability rights perspective on the Nazi Euthanasia program to exterminate people with disabilities. People with disabilities were one of the first groups Hitler chose to destroy. Between 1939 and 1941, Hitler murdered over 200,000 people with physical and intellectual disabilities—a group felt to be not desirable.

This haunting thought is occurring today in America. Under its precept, Harriet would have been executed without a doubt; since I have epilepsy, I too would have been in that group.

Harriet is a leader we must honor and remember in our history as a courageous warrior who spoke out for us all. She has passed away. But, because she lived, her words, her legend, and her courage will go on.

Sorry, Singer. See? You were wrong.

Remembering Harriet McBryde Johnson—A Woman With All The Spine And Muscle Anyone Could Hope For

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Karen Weber and Terri here are used as examples to push for living wills. I may only excerpt from this source.

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A Florida woman, having suffered a stroke, has been comatose for some time.

Her husband, saying she's in a vegetative state, wants her feeding tube removed.

Her mother wants her kept alive, insisting she's often alert.

The issue is being litigated, under scrutiny by the national media.

Terri Schiavo, 2005?

No. It's Karen Weber of Okeechobee, 2008, according to The Associated Press..............

Living Wills: Terri Schiavo, Part II

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An extraction...consider the source. Any time the leftists spill out their prattle, they just gotta mention Terri.

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George W. Bush: Iraq (no WMDs, "mission accomplished," no body armor, troop redeployments, creation of "Al Qaeda in Iraq," Halliburton, Kellogg Brown & Root, "sacrificed" playing golf then lied about it, Blackwater, the "surge," the missing $12 billion in cash, no exit strategy), ignored briefings of impending terrorist attacks before 9/11, "The Pet Goat," preemptive war policy, useless color-coded terror (fear) alerts, where's Osama bin Laden?, Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, Patriot Act I & II, illegal presidential signing statements, illegal wiretapping, illegal Valerie Plame CIA outing, telecom immunity, repeated refusals to testify under oath, Abu Ghraib/torture policy, Habeas Corpus repealed, Walter Reed/Veterans benefits slashed, No Child Left Behind debacle, Medicare drug plan debacle, Terri Schiavo intervention, Diebold voting machines, 2000 recount, "swift boating," Kyoto Treaty pull-out, global warming report cover-up, undermined Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, fired U.S. attorneys for political reasons, Alberto Gonzales resignation, Enron (shareholder losses, energy crisis/rolling blackouts, appointed former Enron official to administration), rising teen STD and pregnancy rates ("abstinence only"), Katrina (four days to respond, FEMA trailers, "Brownie"), slashed welfare to work programs, first president to cut taxes during war (cut taxes only for the top 1% of incomes), recession (foreclosure crisis, all-time record gas prices), all-time record U.S. budget deficits, all-time record U.S. national debt, all-time record vacation time of any president.

What was the question again?

411 Politics Fact or Fiction: Week 94

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Odor of Canada...

It is not a joke. These critters are dead serious.

Thread by wagglebee.

OTTAWA, June 29, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - LifeSiteNews has received confirmation through various sources that the Order of Canada Advisory Council has indeed voted to award the Order of Canada to notorious abortionist and militant atheist Henry Morgentaler. There is reported to be a movement among Members of Parliament and others to attempt to stop the award or at least protest it as being inappropriate and against the opinion of a majority of Canadians.

In an article in the National Post today, columnist Douglas Farrow reports that "The decision, which is to be announced in time for Canada Day, is clearly not driven by popular demand. For example, an online poll by the Globe and Mail, with over 300,000 respondents, went 92% to 8% against giving the award to Morgentaler."........

Confirmed: Advisory Council Has Voted to Award Order of Canada to Abortionist Henry Morgentaler

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A special ping to this thread from Mr. Silverback: It may shock some, and others may think it an anomaly, that such things are rare. We know they are not. These shocking events are frequent and common as evil is unmasked.

Once again, a videographer sitting vigil at the Northern Illinois Women's Center has shown us what abortion does to the people who participate. Video of the incident is at YouTube, and here are some excerpts (including a full transcript) from an Pro-Life Corner's report, "A Breeding Ground Of Hate In The Heart Of Rockford, IL."............

More troubling activity at the Rockford abortuary

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Lauren Richardson update...

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UPDATE June 27, 2008: 

Thanks to all of you for prayers.  Lauren’s case is still ongoing and no decision has been made yet by the trial judge.  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.  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. 

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.  Please continue to pray for Lauren and everyone involved in this case.

Life for Lauren

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Many now have written to Governor Minner to urge her to step in if necessary. A sampling of these letters is on the Life for Lauren website linked below. This is the first. Many follow.

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Dear Governor Minner, 

I am following very closely the matter of Lauren Richardson.

I have previously called and spoken to one of your staffers who

told me there was nothing you could do, since it is in the courts. 

I disagreed then and I still disagree today. 

The executive branch has equal authority and power to

the legislative and judicial branches.

It is your solemn duty to protect innocent life.

Hearsay evidence should never be accepted as a standard

for ending a person's life.

Having a disability, as Lauren does, should not be a death sentence. 

People all over the nation are following this situation. Please use your

authority to stand for the disabled and protect them from those

who may have spurious reasons for stating what may or may not

be true.

Even if Lauren made an off handed remark about not wanting to

be disabled, that should never be the basis for ending her life.

Our nation has strayed far afield from God's enduring command,

"Thou shall not murder."

Please intervene on behalf of your disabled constituent who,

with proper care and therapy, will certainly improve in her

ability to thrive.

Her father, Randy, has the noble goal of caring for his

daughter, until she receives the therapy which can

change her current situation, dramatically.

I pray that you see the infinite value of Lauren and other disabled

citizens in Delaware who, need a champion to protect them from

individuals who may consider those with disabilities less worthy than

the able bodied.

For life, 

L.H.

V.P. Colorado RTL

Letters to the Governor

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[Sun]

More prayers for Lauren, and prayers for all of the people in Lauren’s position, that we do NOT know about.

[Sun]

“A Worcester Juvenile Court judge yesterday authorized removal of life support from a 2-month-old girl whose father apparently accidentally rolled over her while they were asleep in a bed, a state official said yesterday.”

Still more prayers.

[Twink]

Thanks for the update.

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Prayers for our friend!

We remember our own, we help our own, our close friends, our Terri Listers and families. We ask you all to join us in prayers for this dear friend, and for her wonderful husband in this great time of need.

Oremus

(Let us pray..., a Latin term we use at home and one our own T'wit came to love...)

Ping to the thread started by wagglebee.

Prayer Request for a FReeper and Her Husband

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Perhaps it was inevitable, and something the great enemies of Our Lord thought would slip through. They will not prevail.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

By SB200, A Colorado Judge Can Censor the Bible
Christian Opposition Press Conference Today July 1, DTC Marriott

 

The following was released today by American Right to Life:

 

DENVER, July 1 – Colorado Governor Bill Ritter has signed an anti-Christian censorship law SB 200, that leaders representing many organizations will announce plans to oppose at a press conference today, July 1 at 10:15 a.m. in the Primrose Room at the Denver Tech Center Marriott, 4900 S. Syracuse.

 

Colorado State Rep. Kevin Lundberg confirms the fear of many Christians that, "Section 8 of Senate Bill 200 is a wide open door for any judge to censor anything that condemns homosexuality, including Scripture." The title of Section 8 reads: "Publishing of discriminative matter forbidden."

 

"I do believe that the Bible is banned, under the plain language of this new statute," said Steve Crampton, general counsel of Liberty Counsel, a national pro-family litigation organization.

 

A panel available to the media at today's 10:15 a.m. press conference consists of:

- Mathew Staver, founder & chairman, Liberty Counsel

- Steve Curtis, president, American RTL Action and former chairman of the Colorado GOP

- Janet Folger, nationally syndicated talk show host
- Kevin Swanson, Christian Home Educators of Colorado & Generations Radio
- Mark Hotaling, Christian Family Alliance & Colorado for Family Values

- Colorado State Representative Kevin Lundberg

 

Section 8 of the new law reads: "Publishing of discriminative matter forbidden. No person, being the owner… agent, or employee of any place of public accommodation… shall publish… distribute, give away… except as provided in this section, any communication… book, pamphlet, writing… or advertisement of any kind… intended or calculated to discriminate… against… SEXUAL ORIENTATION, marital status… [which] is unwelcome…"

 

"American RTL Action is a political 527 group headquartered a half-block from the Colorado capitol, and we're not going to hire someone cohabitating outside of marriage…" said Steve Curtis, the group's president. "We will also violate SB200's prohibition on publishing certain biblical teachings on homosexuality cohabitation."

 

The media is invited to this press conference to be held in the Primrose Room DTC Marriott at 4900 S. Syracuse St. at 10:15 a.m. today, July 1, 2008. (This press conference is not an official function of, but is being held concurrently with, the Colorado Renewal Project pastor's policy briefing whose speakers include former Governor Mike Huckabee.)

 

Media contact: Donna Ballentine
1-888-888-ARTL (2785) Emergency: 303 881-0376

office@AmericanRTL.org

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We will persevere.

"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will give you no rest."

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Haleigh Poutre update

Our departed friend and stalwart Terri Lister, T'wit, showed great concern in the plight of little Haleigh. I wish he were here in person to share, to see the progress of this brave soul.

To think Haleigh was assigned as a futile item unworthy of life, and the government actually started the process to kill her! The same agency, defeated in its bid, still keeps her like property and isolates her.

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SPRINGFIELD - Fourteen-year-old Haleigh Poutre has gone in three years from unresponsive, brain-damaged victim to potential key witness in a child abuse trial against her stepfather.

Because of that change, Alan J. Black, defense lawyer for the stepfather, Jason D. Strickland, told a judge yesterday in Hampden Superior Court that he will question the competency of the former Westfield girl, who is now residing in a Boston rehabilitative hospital. He said he needs to have experts determine whether she can remember anything that happened to her despite the severe brain trauma she experienced.

Black said that Haleigh had gone from "someone thought to be mentally deceased" to someone allegedly making statements implicating Strickland. 

Along with being the impetus for a major overhaul of the state's child protection system, the case received much attention because Haleigh was initially the subject of an attempt by the state to remove a feeding tube that was keeping her alive. The state Department of Social Services, acting on medical advice that the girl had no chance of recovery, requested to have life support measures withheld, and the state Supreme Judicial Court agreed. But, before the decision to end life support was implemented, the child began to improve.

Strickland, 34, is charged with assault and battery on a child with substantial bodily injury, assault and battery on a child with bodily injury, three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and one count of assault and battery. He has pleaded innocent to all charges.

At yesterday's pre-trial hearing, Judge Judd J. Carhart asked Assistant District Attorney Laurel H. Brandt if Haleigh is expected to testify in trial. Brandt said, "I am hopeful she will testify."

No direct information about the girl's condition is available because of the secrecy surrounding the events that have transpired since she was first brought to Noble Hospital on Sept. 11, 2005, with a brain injury. The last public information given out about Haleigh was that she was receiving therapy at the Franciscan Hospital for Children in Boston and was in the custody of the state social services agency.

Strickland and his wife, Holli A. Strickland, who was Haleigh's adoptive mother, were arrested soon after she was brought to Noble Hospital and charged with assault. Holli Strickland died within days in what West Springfield police said was a murder-suicide with her grandmother.

Black told Carhart that he needs access to a wide range of medical and psychological records relating to Haleigh in order to prepare for Strickland's trial, which is set for Oct. 11.

The defense lawyer said he needs records from each place she was treated to discern her medical status at each point and determine her ability to recall what happened. "This is not a fishing expedition," Black said. "This is a clear case of a girl saying things she didn't say before, couldn't say before."

A new date of Aug. 19 was set to discuss further access to medical information.

Black also is looking for records of some treatment at facilities, such as a Westfield counseling organization, prior to the girl's hospitalization.

After hearing from various parties, Carhart said he will appoint a guardian to represent Haleigh's interests in the trial because issues of release of medical and psychological records are being discussed.

Injured girl could testify

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More on Haleigh...

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BOSTON - State legislators yesterday approved a bill that creates a powerful advocate for children in the governor's office and establishes other changes to provide early detection and prevention of child abuse.

~Snip~

Rep. Cheryl A. Coakley-Rivera, D-Springfield, said the abuse case of Haleigh Poutre of Westfield, now 14, horrified people and motivated legislators to approve the legislation to protect children in the custody of the state. She was leading sponsor of the legislation.

~Snip~

The bill includes measures aimed at improving the state's response to reports of child abuse and neglect.

Under the bill, if there are three or more reports of suspected neglect or abuse against a child, the state would need to notify local police and the district attorney.

The bill creates an Office of Child Advocate under the governor. The office would be independent of state agencies and could launch its own investigations of serious injuries to children in state custody.

Haleigh's case sparked criticism that the state Department of Social Services failed to adequately protect her. Starting in 2001, the department received about 20 complaints of abuse and neglect of the girl, but the agency never attempted to remove her from her adoptive home. The agency's then-commissioner said that medical professionals determined her injuries were self-inflicted.........

Lawmakers pass child-abuse bill

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And more on Haleigh...

We won't be able to rail at DSS anymore. They are changing their name, too. Doesn't DCF just sound better, less mean, more friendly?

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BOSTON— The Legislature yesterday adopted broad changes in child abuse laws and prevention measures, beefing up police and social worker intervention programs, requiring closer monitoring of child abuse cases and more certain investigation requirements in cases of injured children.

Perhaps the largest change calls for the establishment of a powerful new Office of the Child Advocate in the governor’s office, independent of the state Department of Social Services, whose name is being changed by the bill to the Department of Children and Families..............

Child abuse protections approved... Legislature redefines laws, intervention

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Karen Weber update...

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WEBER

OKEECHOBEE(FBW)—Just a few years ago 57-year-old Karen Weber sat around the kitchen table talking about the Terri Schiavo case with her husband, Ray, and her mother, Martha Tatro, 80.

None of the three could have anticipated the chain of events that began in November when Karen Weber had a seizure and then a paralyzing stroke.

Now in a nursing home in Okeechobee, the woman is at the center of a dispute between family members over whether she is competent enough to make her own decisions about basic medical care.

Karen Weber breathes on her own, but the stroke paralyzed her left side, leaving her unable to speak or swallow.

Terri Schiavo is the disabled Florida woman who died in 2005 in a Pinellas Park hospice after a Florida judge ordered her nutrition and hydration cease. It took her 13 days to die. Her husband prevailed in a polarizing court case that reached Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ray Weber, Karen’s husband of 34 years, sought to have her feeding tube removed in March and transferred to hospice. Weber’s mother, who says she is alert and responsive has indicated that she does not wish to go to hospice.

Okeechobee Circuit Court Judge F. Shields McManus in March issued an initial injunction to block the removal of the feeding tube and in May appointed for her an attorney and a committee of three to issue opinions on her competency. The three are: Laura Riley, a Jacksonville neurologist; and two psychologists, Anna Angeline, from Hobe Sound, and Stephen Alexander from West Palm Beach. A competency hearing has yet to be scheduled............

Schiavo-like case in Okeechobee garners interest... Stroke victim indicates she doesn’t want to di

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Tales from the dark side...

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U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler appears today in Fort Lauderdale to offer an insider look in some of the major political controversies of the last decade, including the 2000 presidential election, the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case, and the way the Federal Emergency Management Agency dealt with hurricane damage.

Wexler, who represents central and northern Broward, is the author of a new book, Fire Breathing Liberal: How I Learned to Survive (and Thrive) in the Contact Sport of Congress. He'll speak at today's event, and will sign copies of the book.............

Fort Lauderdale: Congressman to offer insight into past issues

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And this from Newsweak...

Realize, they brought this back from April, 2005, for a fresh look today. I can but excerpt from this source. Whatever the slant, it punctuates the strength of Terri's Legacy, continuing as a force without peer today.

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In the end, Terri Schiavo's bitterly divided family couldn't even agree on what she looked like as she slowly died. Late last week her loved ones visited her bedside at the Woodside Hospice House in Pinellas Park, Fla., where the feeding tube that kept her alive was removed one week before. They caressed her luminous skin and squeezed her gnarled hands. According to her parents and siblings, who had fought unsuccessfully to keep the tube connected, Schiavo resembled an Auschwitz survivor, her cheeks sunken and her lips desiccated by dehydration. She seemed full of torment, said a family spokesman.

"It was as if she was pleading with her mother for help." But in the scene described by her husband's family, which had battled to cut off Schiavo's nourishment, she appeared to be quietly and serenely slipping away. "She's very peaceful," said her brother-in-law Brian Schiavo last week. "Her wishes are being carried out.".........

THE LEGACY OF TERRI SCHIAVO... ONE WOMAN'S JOURNEY FROM MARITAL BLISS TO MEDICAL DARKNESS--AND THE FORCES THAT MADE HER STORY A POLITICAL AND ETHICAL WATERSHED

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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.

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