An 11-year-old Massachusetts girl, Haleigh Poutre, has been on a respirator since last September when she was allegedly beaten by her adoptive mother and stepfather. The state Department of Social Services had asked the courts to allow the removal of the respirator because she was “brain dead” and a “vegetable”. (Because then the parents could be charged with murder, don’t you know.)
On Tuesday, the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court gave the okay to remove the respirator. On Wednesday, Haleigh refused to die and began breathing on her own. How dare she defy our robed masters in this way? However, it appears that DSS will not retaliate for such obvious contempt of judicial process and will not ask for her feeding tube to be removed too.
“There has been a change in her condition,” said a DSS spokeswoman, Denise Monteiro. ‘‘The vegetative state may not be a total vegetative state.”
Which goes to show the medical inanity of something called “vegetative” state. You can’t be a partial vegetable, like you can’t be partially pregnant. Likewise, you can’t be mostly brain dead (despite what Miracle Max might say), you’re either dead or you’re not dead.
The only surprising thing about this case is that Haleigh will be treated as being alive, at least for now. Thank God for his miracle for Haleigh. I will pray that this will be a lesson for those who think they have the final say over life and death.
Technorati Tags: courts, euthanasia, Massachusetts
The sad part is that the only reason the adoptive stepfather would advocate for her life is to save his own. The whole social services industry needs major overhaul to keep this kind of thing from happening so often (removing kids from abusive/neglectful homes only to put them in often worse situations…out of the frying pan, and into the fire, you know?)
I just pray to God they don’t decide to starve her to death.
The thing is, though, the DSS could decide to starve her to death. Note the sentence:
DSS also said it has no immediate plans to remove her feeding tube.
The court gave them the right to do it…whether “immediate” or not. My prayer echoes jrp’s.
Why run down Miracle Max. I think it needed pointing out that “mostly dead *is* slightly alive” and that only when the person is “completely dead” does it become OK to “go through his clothes looking for loose change.” (Until then, he’s “not dead yet,” in the words of Monty Python and the disability rights group of that name (“Not Dead Yet,” not “Monty Python”).)