Let Lauren Live!

ChristtheKingMaine ^ | May 7, 2008 | Judie Brown

[floriduh voter]

If a person gets a Living Will that is peddled by the death movement, it's a DEATH WARRANT.

It's better to get a Will to Live from Priests for Life. www.terrisfight.org has the form or the link.

FV

[floriduh voter]

KAREN WEBER, FLORIDA
http://www.prayforkaren.com/

[Lesforlife]

How chilling that Children’s Hospital in Denver blocks
Lauren’s site!!

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Janet Rivera update...

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Fresno, CA (LifeNews.com) -- In a significant legal victory, a California court has allowed the family of Janet Rivera to resume making her medical decisions. As a result, the incapacitated woman will not become another euthanasia victim and have her food and water taken away like Terri Schiavo.

Rivera was deprived of food and water for 8 days after a court-appointed guardian removed her feeding tube despite her family's wishes when he won the right to make her medical decisions.

The 46-year-old had a heart attack on February 2006 and she never regained consciousness.

After a hearing today in the Fresno County Superior Court, the family of patient Janet Rivera was reinstated as her conservator. Rivera's cousin sought conservatorship so Janet's care can be administered in a life-affirming manner.

The court ruled that Rivera's cousin, Suzanne Emrich, temporarily replaces the public guardian who made the decision a few weeks ago to deprive Rivera of food and water.

An investigation is planned to determine if Emrich is fit to have guardianship on a more permanent basis.

Attorney Brian Chavez-Ochoa, with the Legal Defense Foundation, intervened on behalf of Rivera and her family and he told LifeNews.com he was pleased with the outcome of the hearing.

"The County of Fresno and the Public Guardian are to be applauded for immediately recognizing the rights of the family to care for their loved one and taking the steps to allow that process to be accomplished quickly and without delay," he said.

"The Court, from the earliest stages of this proceeding, proffered rulings of wisdom and gave substance and value to Janet Rivera's life," the attorney, who helped the Schiavo family during its legal battle, explained. "The sanctity of life was honored and we thank the Lord for the wonderful outcome in this case."

The family wants permission to be able to remove Rivera from a respirator because, after she was removed from it when her food and water were taken away, they discovered she could breathe fine on her own.

Two more hearings will come up in the case before a permanent decision is made.

Last week, the court issued a temporary decision allowing the reinstatement of Rivera's feeding tube while the case continued to today's hearing.

Rivera's brother, Michael Dancoff, told the Fresno Bee newspaper he was excited to hear about the ruling.

"I'm happy they're giving her a second chance," he said. "I'm happy we'll get to prove she's not on her deathbed."

He says he believes Rivera, whom doctors diagnosed as being in a so-called persistent vegetative state, is still conscious.

"She looked at me and her eyes were open," he said. "She wasn't dying. She wanted to live."

Jesus Rivera, Janet's husband, had been his wife's conservator until June 17, when he was replaced for unknown reasons by David Hadden, the Fresno County coroner. At the hearing, Judge Kazanjian said that happened because Jesus Rivera was not able to adequately provide for Janet's medical care.

Jesus, according to a Bee report, wants to allow his wife to continue to receive food and water and wants "her body to give out when it gives out between her and Almighty God and no one else."

"You can't starve someone to death," he said.

Doctors disagreed and, after consulting them, Hadden decided to remove Janet Rivera's feeding tube.

At the time, Hadden's office released a statement saying he made the decision after "immense consideration" and due to Rivera's "untreatable and irreversible condition and to prevent any and all suffering that she may be enduring."

"If this were a family member of mine, I would want the decision made by the group of physicians who are taking care of this patient," he added.

Disability rights and pro-life groups have weighed in on the case in favor of Rivera and her family.

The newspaper said Hadden called the ruling last week an "appropriate course of action."

Rivera is currently admitted at the Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno.

Janet Rivera's Family Can Make Medical Decisions, Won't be Euthanasia Victim

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Another take on the news on Janet Rivera as the local CBS takes some credit...

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The family of a comatose Sanger woman moves one step closer to getting control of her care.

Janet Rivera has been in a persistent vegetative state for more than two years. Last month, the County of Fresno removed her life support, leaving her to die of dehydration. She survived more than a week without food or water before the county decided to put her feeding tube back in because of all the attention brought to the case after CBS47 began reporting it.

Rivera's family went before a judge to ask that she be put back on life support. The judge agreed and ordered she be placed back on support and awarded temporary custody to Janet’s cousin, Suzanne Emrich.

On Wednesday, the county stepped away from the case, opening the door for the family to win full custody of Janet Rivera's care. Janet's brother Michael will ask to be named the permanent conservator at the next hearing next month.

Regardless of who has the title, both say it's been wonderful to see how the family has pulled together in the past few weeks to make sure Janet is taken care of.

Janet Rivera’s Family Get More Good News

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In explanation of the above, the date of the first post was awhile back, with the update following.

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Meanwhile, we watch for Lauren Richardson. Delaware could take a lesson...

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The local ABC affiliate has a take on Janet Rivera with a video of the decision at the link.

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Fresno, CA, USA (KFSN) -- Fresno County's public guardian has been removed from a controversial right to life case.

The family of Janet Rivera has been fighting against the county to keep the woman alive.

On Wednesday, the county asked to leave the case since the family has been involved, and a judge granted the request.

Rivera is in a vegetative state and being housed in a Fresno specialized health care facility. At one time the guardian removed life support believing Rivera would never recover. 

With the county out of the case, Rivera's family can make her medical decisions

Fresno County Removed from Rivera Case

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The ABC station continues, with more video at the link on Janet Rivera...

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Fresno, CA, USA (KFSN) -- Fresno County's public guardian is no longer intervening in a controversial right to life case.

Doctor David Hadden and Janet Rivera's family have been battling over whether or not to end the comatose woman's life.

Janet Rivera has lived in a vegetative state for two years. She never left documents detailing her medical care ... If she can't decide for herself. Her brother believes Janet wants to live.

Michael Dancoff, Rivera's Brother: "I still think she's not in a total vegetative state. I think she's in a mentally conscious state ... I'm going to try to wake her up."..................

Right-to-Life Debate | Fresno Official on the Hot Seat

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From the Fresno Bee, excerpted...

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Meanwhile, Rivera's brother, Michael Dancoff, said he and Emrich have agreed to ask the court to appoint him as Rivera's conservator because Emrich is moving to Washington state. Dancoff lives in Berkeley...........

Brother may be sister's conservator

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From Italy, about Terri and not directy about Eluana Englaro, though...

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The Government has also drawn up a bill which would limit magistrates’ powers to use telephone intercepts as evidence which is often used to nail corrupt or organized crime linked politicians.

Not all the measures are on pure self-interest; in a case which reflects the Bush intervention in the Terry Schiavo case, the Government party passed a motion saying that Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction to allow a father to stop treatment on his daughter who has been in an irreversible coma for 16 years.

One way or another, the power and authority of the judiciary is being dismantled in favour of a populist executive which believes it should have total control and it doing its best to achieve it. There is much which needs reforming in the Italian judiciary but Berlusconi and his party have already completed their personal agenda to the serious detriment of Italy’s balance of state powers.

Italy leads the way in populism in Western Europe - Chair of the Department of American university of Rome

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Figures....

Thread by wagglebee.

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August 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A report from the American Psychological Association (APA) published this week claims that there is no meaningful connection between abortion and subsequent psychological disturbances in women. When a woman has a negative psychological consequence, says the report, it is likely only to be in cases where a "wanted" child was aborted for eugenic reasons.

"Among adult women who have an unplanned pregnancy the relative risk of mental health problems is no greater if they have a single elective first-trimester abortion than if they deliver that pregnancy," the report says......

Abortion has no Negative Psychological Consequences: American Psychological Association

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TRONDHEIM, the home of my ancestors... And this happens now...

Thread by wagglebee.

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TRONDHEIM, Norway, August 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A recently published Norwegian study of prenatal detection of trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) reveals that 84% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in the country are aborted. The study also concludes with the observation that "based solely on maternal age and second-trimester ultrasound imaging, the prenatal detection rate of trisomy 21 cases was poor and remained unchanged throughout the 18-year study period."

The study was conducted by the Norwegian National Center for Fetal Medicine and published in the August 2008 issue of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.......

Eugenics: Study Finds Vast Majority (84%) of Down Syndrome Babies Aborted in Norway

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The Obama Nation! Imagine that!

New book out by Jerome Corsi soars to number 1 on NYT best seller list. Being covered by CNN, Fox News, and etc.

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Significant parts of the book, whose subtitle is “Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality,” have already been challenged as misleading or false in the days since its debut on Aug. 1. Nonetheless, it is to make its first appearance on The New York Times best-seller list for nonfiction hardcovers this Sunday — at No. 1....

The Obama Nation

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[syriacus]

Janet Rivera's Family Can Make Medical Decisions, Won't be Euthanasia Victim

Thanks for posting this good news!

[Dante3]

Thanks for the update.

[8mmMauser]

Janet Rivera, further.......

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Fresno, CA (LifeNews.com) -- The family of a disabled woman who almost became a victim of euthanasia in the same way as Terri Schiavo won another victory in court on Thursday. Michael Dancoff, brother of Janet Rivera of Sanger, is now in the process of obtaining permanent conservatorship of his sister.

Rivera was denied food and water for 11 consecutive days in the same manner as Schiavo lost her nutrition for 13 days before succumbing to the death her former husband wanted and won after a lengthy court battle.

The Fresno County Superior Court issued a report on Wednesday saying Rivera's cousin is qualified to become her guardian.

Judge Debra Kazanjian will ultimately decide in a September 9 hearing whether Dancoff will be allowed to become the decision-maker regarding his sister's care.

Guardianship had originally been appointed to the cousin, Suzanne Emrich, who has plans to move out of state.

During a recent visit with Rivera, Dancoff told the Fresno Bee newspaper that she responds in a limited fashion by blinking her eyes and moving her mouth. He says he hopes Rivera recovers from her injuries eventually and hopes to get her rehabilitative care to do so.

"I think she's still in a mentally conscious state," Dancoff said. "I'm going to wake her up."

He says he is encouraged by the fact that Rivera began breathing on her own after removal from life support and hopes weaning her off oxygen will help.

The 46-year-old had a heart attack on February 2006 and she never regained consciousness.

Josh Brahm, Director of Education for Right to Life of Central California, attended the meeting and talked with LifeNews.com afterwards.

“I'm glad to hear that Michael is pursuing full conservatorship of Janet,” he said. “Michael understands how to handle these difficult medical situations and he’s not going to give up fighting for his little sister.”

Jesus Rivera, Janet's husband, had been his wife's conservator until June 17, when he was replaced for financial reasons by David Hadden, the Fresno County coroner. Judge Kazanjian said that happened because Jesus Rivera was not able to adequately provide for Janet's medical care.

Hadden decided to remove Janet Rivera's feeding tube after doctors indicated she wouldn't recover.

“This case shows that so-called ‘futile care theory’ needs to be seriously discussed on a national level,” Brahm said. “Some doctors believe that when a patient reaches a certain stage of illness, age or injury, any treatment other than comfort care is ‘futile’ and should be withheld or withdrawn, even if a patient wants treatment because of deeply held values or a desire to live."

“Currently, doctors and hospitals can refuse treatment simply because of their personal opinions. This is not a medical determination, but simply a value judgment," he explained.

"Unless people strongly object and legislatures take action now, this new and deadly game of ‘doctor knows best’ may be coming soon to a hospital near you," he concluded.

Related web sites:
Right to Life of Central California - http://www.rtlcc.org

Family of Disabled Patient Janet Rivera Gets More Good News From Local Court

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More on Janet Rivera excerpted from Mercury News...

FRESNO, Calif.—The brother of a comatose woman at the center of a life support fight hopes to move her from Fresno to a Bay Area hospital closer to relatives.

Michael Dancoff says he has agreed to take conservatorship over 46-year-old Janet Rivera, who gained media attention in July when the Fresno County Public Guardian's office kept her off feeding tubes and a respirator for 11 days....

Brother wants control over comatose Fresno woman

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Taking heart...

From World Net Daily...

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A federally funded research project has described how surgeons were able to snatch the hearts from severely brain-damaged newborns only seconds after they were disconnected from life-support units and transplant the organs into other diseased infants, but the work is raising alarms from those who say the donors weren't dead yet.

The work was documented in a report in the New England Journal of Medicine today, which in an unusual move also published a series of commentaries about the study that offered harsh criticism.

"It is impossible to transplant a heart successfully after irreversible stoppage: if a heart is restarted, the person from whom it was taken cannot have been dead according to cardiac criteria. Removing organs from a patient whose heart not only can be restarted, but also has been or will be restarted in another body, is ending a life by organ removal," wrote Dr. Robert Veatch, professor of medical ethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University................

Doctors worry organ donors not dead... Feds fund project to snatch hearts from brain-injured newborns

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Samuel Golubchuk, R.I.P. gone, but his own legacy continues. This report examines the tales of the killers and brings in factors like the Texas Futile Care law with reader commentary at the end...

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WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Aug. 14 -- Keeping 84-year-old Samuel Golubchuk alive under court order was "tantamount to torture," and Anand Kumar, M.D., would have no more of it.

Calling the continued care an "abomination," the critical care physician told senior medical officials at Grace Hospital here he would refuse to accept ICU rotations that involved caring for the comatose man.

To follow the court's order, Dr. Kumar wrote in a letter of resignation, "we will likely have to continue to surgically hack away at his infected flesh at the bedside in order to keep infection at bay."

"This is grotesque," he continued. "To inflict this kind of assault on him without a reasonable hope of benefit is an abomination."

~Snip~

But the rules vary from place to place. "Patchwork is the best way to describe it," Dr. Curtis said.

"There is no fundamental rule or law about how these cases are handled," Dr. Curtis said, and there's not even a consensus within the medical community.

The American Medical Association, for instance, enjoins its members to respect patient autonomy and to make "reasonable efforts" to figure out what a patient would have wanted, including consulting family members or other patient surrogates, asking ethics committees, or even going to court.

But the AMA doesn't come down on one side or the other on the issue of who makes the decision. "What most guidelines lack," said Dr. Blackmer, "is that final step -- to say, at the end of the day, when you can't come to an agreement, here's how to make the decision."

One exception to that, Dr. Curtis said, is Texas, where a state law sets out a process that governs withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment even in the face of opposition from surrogate decision-makers.

Under the Texas Advance Directives Act, a doctor can refuse to continue "inappropriate" life-support. The issue is then referred to an ethics committee and if the committee agrees with the doctor, the patient's surrogate has 10 days to either accept the ruling or find another facility that will continue the life-support.

The only role for the courts, the law says, is to extend the time limit if there's evidence that a transfer is in the works.......................

Special Report: Court-Ordered End-of-Life Care for Comatose Man Deemed Torture

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