Search / 6 posts tagged Haleigh Poutre

Wesley Smith has an update on Haleigh Poutre, who apparently - and hopefully - will be spared having to testify in the trial of her stepfather, Jason Strickland. Haleigh Poutre narrowly escaped the death planned for her by medical professionals at Baystate Medical Center and publicly-appointed guardians from Massachussets DSS.

Readers of SHS will recall the tragic tale of Haleigh Poutre, beaten nearly to death by her adoptive parents and consigned quickly to death by dehydration by doctors who swore she would never awaken only ten days post injury, the Department of Social Services that decided her life was thus of too low a quality to be allowed to continue, and a Supreme Court that willingly went along.

The Boston Globe is reporting how far Haleigh Poutre has progressed since bioethicists, social workers, and courts decided to dehydrate her to death. From the story: Haleigh, now 14, has stayed for more than two years at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton, where she is described as a friendly child who routinely smiles and waves at staff.

It was a good thing disability rights activists were at the forefront of saving Haleigh Poutre's life, or she would have been certainly dead by now. It was thought by doctors she was so helplessly brain damaged she would never "recover." Well, she is breathing and communicating now.

There is a huge lesson to be learned in this story, but we won't learn it and the media won't highlight the issue--lest we come to the "wrong conclusion" about Terri Schiavo. Haleigh Poutre, who doctors swore would never recover, and state bureaucrats consigned to dehydration--with the approval of the Massachusetts Supreme Court--testified in court about the abuse that led to her disability.