Let Lauren Live!

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:

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.

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.

Haleigh Poutre update...

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Creating an extra layer of government bureaucracy to solve a problem, however serious, rarely proves effective.

Here's hoping the newly created Office of the Child Advocate is the exception.

The position is part of a law overhauling the state's child welfare system. Other measures include increasing penalties for people who work with children and fail to report instances of suspected child abuse, establishment of a foster care registry to track the success of foster parents and a revision of the process for deciding when to end the lift of an abused child in state custody.

The last measure was crafted in response to the case 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 was nearly removed from life support at the direction of the Department of Social Services before her condition began to improve.

Poutre is in a Boston rehabilitation hospital. She has been recovering and may testify against her stepfather, Jason Strickland, who has pleaded innocent to assault and battery charges. Her adoptive mother, Holli A. Strickland, died in what police said was a murder-suicide with her grandmother.

While Poutre's case has garnered the most attention, there have been several others in the past few years that have been similarly disturbing:

r In 2005, 4-year-old Dontel Jeffers of Boston was killed by his foster mother, Corinne Stephen. Stephen was sentenced to eight years in prison last December.

r Four-year-old Rebecca Riley of Hull died last year after her parents gave her a massive overdose of drugs meant to treat hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder. The parents were under DSS supervision.

r Jennifer Ward of Peabody has been charged with shaking her 9-month-old daughter Jocelyn Ward Anderson to death last November. Prosecutors contend the girl suffered a series of injuries, from a skull fracture to broken vertebrae, while her mother was under DSS supervision................................

Our view: A hopeful start for child welfare reform

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Don't miss this powerful article in a thread by wagglebee.

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July 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A large number of endangered, unwanted, and unborn children held a town hall meeting on the 4th of July - alarmed at the brutal and untimely killing of millions of their brothers and sisters in recent years. That the murderous war waged on them had the full force and respectability of the law made their plight all the more terrifying.

Their complaint was humble and it was simple. They were not distressed by rising gas prices, or the deteriorating economy in general. They were not even frightened by the exponential increase of natural disasters. The threat of global warming or global terrorism did not greatly disturb them.

They had become an endangered species, and little had been done to answer their terrified and silent screams from the womb. They decided that the barbaric treatment that they and their fellow unwanted unborn human beings have had to endure for perilous decades was unconscionable and unbearable. They cried out to their Creator for inspiration and protection, and then unanimously they put forth a declaration. It began as follows:.................

Death Wish: The Impending Suicide of a Once Great Nation (Great Read!)

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Bradley Whaley...

Little Auschwitz fires up the ovens again, as the seeds continue to sprout.

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Unquestionably conscious cognitively disabled patients are now being denied sustenance in every state in U.S.This latest event took place in Terri Schiavo's Hospice

ST. PETERSBURG, FL (LifeSiteNews) - Another young person has been dehydrated to death in the same hospice in Florida where Terri Schindler Schiavo met her court-ordered end.

Bradley Whaley, 26, was severely brain damaged by an overdose of drugs and was minimally conscious, according to media reports. He died July 2 after the Hospice of Florida Suncoast removed his food and hydration tube.

After Bradley's collapse, his mother said she and her husband did nothing but "work, sleep and spend time with Bradley". His family cared for him for three years but in the end they transferred Bradley to the Hospice of Florida Suncoast, the same hospice in which Terri Schiavo died after having her assisted nutrition and hydration tube removed.

Sue Whaley told the St. Petersburg Times that Bradley would "mouth" the word 'mama' and would kiss her if she leaned close enough.

Wesley J. Smith, a lawyer and critic of secular bioethics, wrote of the case that it illustrated the new medical ethics paradigm, based on "quality of life" criteria, in which patients who cannot speak or feed themselves are now at risk of being killed by dehydration.

"For more than ten years I have been telling anyone who will listen that unquestionably conscious cognitively disabled patients are being denied sustenance in every state in this country--so long as no family member objects," Smith writes.

But the "bigger story", he said, was the "blasé, matter-of-fact" way in which the Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg Times covered the story. The Times gave a glowing biographical account of Bradley's life in which the fact that he was killed by having food and water withdrawn was given a scant single line.

Smith comments that the Times "exhibited profound, nay, nasty, bias against the Schindlers during the Schiavo debacle".

"Can you imagine the paper's reaction had a dog or a horse been denied sustenance?"

The real issue, Smith says, is that profoundly cognitively disabled patients are now at risk wherever they are.

"The wall was breached allowing utilitarian bioethical values to come pouring in. Now, virtually anyone who needs a feeding tube and can't make their own decisions--conscious or not--can and are being denied food and water."

Another Disabled Young Person Dehydrated to Death

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

While our death industry starts growing, perhaps in anticipation of favorable elections, at least some other countries are turning the other way at times. Thread by wagglebee.

Zurich, Switzerland (LifeNews.com) -- A leading government official in Switzerland wants the European nation to stop the infamous practice of "death tourism." That's where residents of other countries come to the mountainous nation to have pro-euthanasia groups help them engage in an assisted suicide.

Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf says the practice is giving her nation a bad name.......

Switzerland Government Official Wants Assisted Suicide Death Tourism to Stop

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The modest seedlings of the death industry sprouts are getting some green fertilizer in large quantities. Hmmmm. Thread by wagglebee.

Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com) -- Voters in Washington state head to the polls in November to decided whether to make it the second, after Oregon, to legalize assisted suicide. In the coming months, they'll likely see a one-sided campaign in favor of I-1000 because the backers of the initiative have a nearly 12-1 advantage in fundraising.

The numbers should light a fire under pro-life advocates, patient and disability rights groups and medical professionals who don't want euthanasia to expand......

Washington Assisted Suicide Opponents Trail Nearly 12-1 in Fundraising

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These survey results fall in line with thrust of the propaganda machine running by the leftists. It is where they shout long and loud that decent Americans wanted to see Terri die and abhored any who would seek to help her. These lies build upon the normal human projection of oneself into the situation of a handicapped and the emotional revulsion to such fate.

Yet we look in horror at what happened in Hitler's Germany, and smugly take comfort it cannot happen here. Yet it is creeping in like crabgrass and dandelions to a once pure lawn.

Thread by wagglebee.

July 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - More than half of people in the US would rather be dead than disabled says a new survey. A US website for disabled people ran the survey which asked, "Which would you choose: Living with a severe disability that forever alters your ability to live an independent life, or death?" 52 per cent of the respondents chose death.

The survey, run by the online community and website Disaboom, found that differences in attitude toward disability were based on age, income, geographic location, and level of education. 63 percent of younger Americans chose death over disability, while of those of the so-called "boomer generation" (people between the age of 55 and 64 years) 50 percent chose death. 56 percent of Americans 65 and older would rather die than live with a disability.

Those with more education and higher incomes were more likely to choose death and the numbers were slightly lower, 45 percent, in the southern states. 57 percent of those with a college education said they would rather die than live with a severe disability, while only 30 per cent of respondents who have not completed a high school education chose death.

Dr. Glen House, founder of Disaboom, himself a quadriplegic, said he was working to change such attitudes. He told Medical News Today, "I want to share ways for people to understand that disability isn't the end of life. It can be a new beginning."...

Half of Americans Would Choose Death over Disability: Survey

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Some people think they are smart enough to replace God. Like this bunch...

Thread by wagglebee.

LONDON, July 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The solution to global warming, says a UK charity, is to implement laws that would result in people having fewer children. Governments should put slow pressure on people to limit their offspring to one or two children to save social and environmental resources.

"There is no unlimited right to have children," said the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), the group known to be one of the most militantly anti-life organisations in the world. There is a limit, the Trust said, "on the number of children to which people are 'entitled'."

"A voluntary population policy should be incorporated into law," the group said.....

No Such thing as a Right to Have Babies: Population Trust

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May Dr. Alveda King's voice be heard...

Thread by wagglebee.

Cincinnati, OH (LifeNews.com) -- Yesterday, African-Americans kicked off the 99th annual conference for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Though Barack Obama was on-hand as the first black presidential candidate, black pro-life advocates there said he doesn't represent them.

Several pastors and dozens of black pro-life people, including NAACP members, said the organization shouldn't turn a blind eye to how abortion disproportionately hurts black women.

The protestors included Dr. Alveda King, a niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King who told the Wall Street Journal she knows what abortion does to women -- having had two abortions herself.......

NAACP Convention Sees Black Pro-Life Advocates Condemn Abortion

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Eluana Englaro update...

In the old days, killing was simply killing, now it is so decorated with words designed to obfuscate, intentionally, it is difficult for the general public to grasp what is happening. Her own father turns his efforts into something noble as if dehydrating a daughter to death was the right thing to do.

News is thin on this case, but it still isn't over

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(AGI) - Rome, 16 July - The Senate Regulatory Committee received a proposal during this afternoon's session from President Renato Schifani to defer to the first permanent committee, Constitutional Affairs, the question of a possible clash of competence to be raised between the Senate and the Court of Appeal over the Eluana Englaro affair. After the committee's investigation the Assembly will decide. In the last few days the motion with principal signatory Francesco Cossiga was presented at Palazzo Madama, which asks the Senate to resolve a conflict of competence against the Court of Appeal concerning the Eluana Englaro case. The vice-group leader of the PDL, Gaetano Quagliariello, noted yesterday that the discussion for the motion will be scheduled in the next meeting of the group leaders to be held on Monday.

ELUANA: SENATE EXAMINES POSSIBLE CLASH OF COMPETENCE

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Save the Wales...

Sounds like they need it if they accept such rantings as reasonable. I find it interesting that many in the homosexual community stood so boldly and openly on condemning Terri from the time it happened. The rant shows the mindset of our adversaries.

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Our Carmarthen-based zealot was at it again this week. Outraged at the appearance in Britain of Gene Robinson, the American bishop blanked by the CoE because he’s openly gay (as opposed to being secretly gay like dozens of his peers) the Prophet Green of Christian Voice thundered: “It is a sad day when you get a bishop in a church preaching something that God himself called an abomination.”

~Snip~

For 16 years Eleuna Englaro has been in a coma in an Italian hospital. Her father finally won permission to remove the feeding tube that kept his 37-year-old daughter alive. With startling prescience, Eleuna said before the accident that left her a vegetable: “It’s better to die than remain motionless in hospital at the mercy of others, attached to a tube.”

~Snip~

Which brings us to George W Bush, certified born-again buffoon. He was at the forefront in the fight to prevent the removal of a feeding tube from Terri Schiavo, a 39-year-old woman left in a coma for 13 years.

The usual suspects joined in – the Catholic church, the rampant religious right, the pro-lifers – none of whom, as far as I know, protested when Bush, as Governor of Texas, “took it on himself” (in Vaticanspeak) to end the lives of dozens on his state’s Death Row.

If God considers gays an abomination, why did he create them?

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The American Bar Association, ABA, has as its motto, "Defending Liberty, Pursuing Justice". Yeah, sure. They sure sought it with Terri. Here is how they are fighting now:

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- Affirm ABA opposition to legislation and policies that interfere with a medical provider’s effort to protect a patient’s health, such as the legislative attempts made to direct care in the Terri Schiavo case. (Recommendation 117B)

Military Personnel Rights, Federal Judicial Nominations and Other Critical Legal Issues Top Agenda for ABA House of Delegates at Annual Meeting in New York

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Forty days continues in thread by wagglebee.

WASHINGTON, DC, July 16, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - David Bereit, the national campaign director for the the 40 Days for Life campaign, has indicated that cities across the country are applying to participate in the upcoming, fall 2008 campaign. Bereit said that the fall campaign "promises to be the largest and longest coordinated pro-life mobilization in history.".............

40 Days for Life Prepares for "Largest Pro-life Mobilization in History"

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Jill Stanek raises a pointed irony, illustrating the diseased mindset of the left in this thread by wagglebee.

CNN reported July 11 that according to the National Institutes of Health, U.S. teen pregnancies in 2006 rose for the first time since 1991. Translation: "One-third of girls in the U.S. got pregnant before age 20."

In the same article, CNN reported a "striking decrease" in the percentage of eighth graders smoking, down from 10 percent in 1996 to 3 percent in 2007.

While federal health experts were at a loss to explain the spike in teen pregnancies, a Centers for Disease Control official said smoking abated due to "efforts convincing kids and adults not to smoke," according to CNN...........

Jill Stanek: Linking U.S. teen pregnancies and AIDS in Africa

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On the case of Haleigh Poutre, Sam Golubchuk, and others, from the 5Towns Jewish Times...

About one thing Aharon Barak, former president of the Supreme Court of Israel, is right: constitutionalism—the imposition by judges of their moral intuitions on an unsuspecting public—is on the rise everywhere. The opinion of Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court in Kennedy v. Louisiana could have been written by an Israeli Supreme Court justice, so lacking was it in anything bordering on coherent analysis.

A five-to-four majority of the court ruled that imposition by Louisiana of the death penalty on Patrick Kennedy for brutally raping his 12-year-old stepdaughter and inflicting internal injuries far too gruesome to describe would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. According to Justice Kennedy, the Constitution contemplates that in the end “our [i.e., the justices] own judgment” will be determinative. Yet the only argument he offered for why murder, alone of crimes against individuals, may be punished by death is that murder victims are dead. Such profundity is Kennedy’s trademark.

~Snip~

On June 17, 2006, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts granted the request of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services to cut off the respirator from Haleigh Poutre, an 11-year-old girl who had been savagely beaten by her aunt and stepfather. The court was informed that Haleigh was “in an irreversible and permanent coma, with the least amount of brain function that a person can still have and be considered alive.”..........

Supreme Arrogance The Devolving Value Of Life

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Eluana Englaro update...

Please kill me slowly and painfully so I will suffer more than almost any other living thing meeting the end. Please dehydrate me to death slowly, Dad...

Yeah sure, that is what she wanted...

Last Wednesday the civil appeals court in Italy Milan authorized stopping the forced hydration and feeding that has kept Eluana Englaro alive for the past 16 years. The Italian woman has been in a coma since her car accident on January 18, 1992. Her father Beppino Englaro, spoke to Corriere Canadese/Tandem about his reaction to the ruling.

What did you feel when you learned about the court ruling?

“I simply felt a great relief because finally the will of my daughter will be respected.”

What were her dreams before the accident?............

Father wants daughter’s wishes respected Case of Eluana Englaro stirs debate about assisted suicide in Italy

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