[Pflienews] PharmFacts E-News Update: 'If they treated a dog this way, they would be doing jail time'

[PFLI PharmAid Center]

*PharmFacts E-News Update -- 21 Jul 2008 AD

*
This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which 
follows.
To view this item online, visit 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=70004

 
Sunday, July 20, 2008

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*MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
WorldNetDaily Exclusive*
Father: 'System' killing my disabled daughter
'If they treated a dog this way,
they would be doing jail time'
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Posted: July 19, 2008
11:10 pm Eastern

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WorldNetDaily

The father of a disabled Delaware woman who recently earned the support 
of state lawmakers 
<http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=68675> says the system 
-- of courts, lawyers, hospitals and disability agencies -- literally is 
combining to bring about the death of his daughter.

"The court system should not have the right to impose this kind of 
treatment on a mentally disabled person," Randy Richardson told WND 
today. His daughter, Lauren Richardson, has been disabled since an 
apparent drug overdose nearly two years ago.

Judie Brown of the American Life League <http://www.all.org/> recently 
issued a call to those who are concerned about such cases to help.

"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," she wrote. "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 at state.de.us."

Brown said "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 as a 
result of the overdose and Lauren is now ... 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," Brown wrote.

Lauren's case has been compared to that of Terri Schiavo, the Florida 
woman who died after courts ruled doctors could follow her husband's 
orders to deprive her of food and water until she died.

The Schiavo case, on which WND has reported exhaustively since 2002 -- 
far longer than most other national news organization 
<http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35305> -- 
ended in March 2005 when she died, despite a battle by her parents who 
wanted to care for her to overturn a court order allowing the removal of 
her feeding tube.

Randy Richardson 
<http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=45857> says he now is 
battling his former wife, the medical establishment and the court system 
for the life of his daughter.

He told WND that the courts in Delaware are considering whether to 
designate that Lauren is in a persistent vegetative state, even though, 
"We've had doctors look at her ... There are possibilities with 
treatments. But she's not getting treatments."

"The state does not allow this for prisoners. If they had treated a dog 
this way, they would be doing jail time," he told WND.

"With therapy, she might be eating [by herself] within a couple months," 
he said. "Right now they're trying to hang her out to dry."

He said he's identified treatments that could be tried and therapy that 
could be attempted, and he's offered to provide the care his daughter 
needs, but has been rejected.

"My daughter has been there for 16 months. I've had enough," he said. 
"I'm really ticked about it. This Medicaid thing is paying huge numbers 
to keep her in this home when she could be at my home for nothing."

Even now, without substantive treatment, he said, "She has been trying 
to sit up and also has tried to verbalize. She looks good, is loving, 
she cries, she can giggle, she can't talk but does try to verbalize, we 
can tell when she's in pain or uncomfortable."

He previously posted a YouTube video 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5ZRWn-gE5g> of her, which can be seen here:

But he told WND the court-appointed lawyers have now banned him from 
showing any pictures or videos which reflect Lauren's condition.

He said he and Lauren's mother, from whom he is divorced, worked 
together following Lauren's accident to make sure her care was provided 
until her baby was born. Then Randy Richardson got a letter from his 
ex-wife's lawyer telling him the goal would be to "permit Lauren's 
starvation," according to Brown.

At LifeForLauren.org Lauren's father confirmed, 
<http://www.lifeforlauren.org/> "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."

The statement from the House of Representatives said: 
<http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis144.nsf/vwLegislation/HR+75/$file/legis.html?open%5C>

    BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the 144th General
    Assembly of the State of Delaware that it is against the public
    policy of this State and this State's interest in life, health and
    safety, for hydration and nutrition that is not harming a patient to
    be involuntarily removed from a non-terminal, apparently
    brain-incapacitated patient if doing so will cause the individual's
    death. Furthermore, such withholding of hydration and nutrition
    without: 1) clear written direction from a legally competent patient
    or, 2) a valid written advance health-care directive that was
    previously executed by a patient who is now incapacitated and that
    either allows such withholding under such circumstances or grants an
    agent authority to make that decision by an incapacitated patient is
    also against the public policy of the State of Delaware.

The lawmakers' plan cites the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 
which "asserts that 'everyone has the right to recognition as a person 
before the law' and that 'all are equal before the law.'"

They also cite the Americans with Disabilities Act that "clearly 
identifies the rights of the disabled to access essential needs and have 
essential services provided to them."

Further, they affirm, "it is becoming increasingly apparent that persons 
who are suffering from severe brain injuries often have cognitive 
functions significantly beyond what medical science previously estimated."

Finally, they determine, "it is also becoming increasingly apparently 
that the diagnosis of 'persistent vegetative state' or 'PVS' is a 
category that recent science shows is far more uncertain and overly 
broad than had been previously thought, including a high rate of 
misdiagnoses of PVS patients who have not been able to exhibit 
responses, but whose consciousness can now sometimes be measured."

In an explanatory note accompany the resolution, the lawmakers said: 
"This Resolution establishes protections for mentally disabled 
individuals in the State of Delaware. The impetus for this Resolution 
comes from the case of Lauren Richardson, a 24-year-old Delaware woman 
who, after suffering brain injuries and impaired consciousness, now 
faces the possible removal of her nutrition and hydration, despite the 
absence of her clearly specified and legal consent to any such a course 
of action. The State of Delaware has, through recent legislation 
prompted by the abuses at the Delaware Psychiatric Center, endeavored to 
protect the rights of mentally disabled patients in the First State. 
Lauren, as a mentally disabled person, is enumerated those same 
protection and rights."

A priest who was with Terri Schiavo during her final hours in this life 
later told WND society has it all wrong -- because it does not 
understand the difference between a futile /treatment/ and a futile /life./

Father Frank Pavone, of Priests for Life, 
<http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://www.priestsforlife.org> said even 
healthy people, if brain-injured, are in danger under the current 
precedent of cases.

"Terry left no indication that she wanted to be deprived of food and 
water. Yet the courts insisted that this happen. Nor was Terri lacking a 
family ready to care for her, without complaint. Yet they were not 
allowed to," he said.

"Many people fear that they will be given all kinds of machines and 
medicines against their will," Pavone told WND. "What they should fear 
is exactly the opposite, namely, that even when they indicate that they 
want appropriate treatments, these will be denied them."

A Delaware court in January awarded guardianship of Lauren Richardson to 
her mother, Edith Towers, who has told reporters her daughter would want 
artificial life support ended.


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