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.
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