Futile care and its dangerous implications

There is in our American (U.S.) society a struggle occurring in regard to caring for the terminally ill AND the severely disabled- how far shall we go to sustain life, and, just as importantly, who makes the decisons?

Increasingly, there are pressures, from those who count the financial cost of it all, to manage care, to ration it, to create decision-making mechanisms which sacrifice the health care options of those whose lives are deemed to be of questionable quality for “the greater good” (convenience) of, variously, the extended family, the community at large, and probably also the hospital’s efficiency and profit.

Of course, the hospital committees that have assumed this role would contend that their motives are noble. But the fact is, they are playing god with the lives of defenseless persons.

The blog Not Dead Yet has recently addressed this “futile care” approach for the threat to humanity that it is; see http://notdeadyetnewscommentary.blogspot.com/search/label/futile%20care

The Orthodox Churches (jurisdictions of the One Church) have addressed the issue of Euthanasia, but not “futile care” specifically as yet. Khorea Frederica Matthewes-Green addresses Euthanasia in her blog:  FREDERICA.COM: euthanasia

And here is a useful bit if information by a physician, Peter Bushunow, M.D., on “The Orthodox Christian at the Doctor’s” (the issues in question are dealt with as well as other practical and moral considerations): http://www.roca.org/OA/147-148/147x.htm

Here’s an official Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese Statement on Euthanasia from 1994:

WHEREAS all human beings who are in a condition of medical dependency because of illness, age, or for some other reason, must be provided with the basic amenities of food, water, cleanliness, warmth and relief from pain. These can never be considered as “extraordinary” measures in the context of medical treatment, and,WHEREAS Christians do not fear bodily death but rather consider it as a Passover between earthly life and the life of the Kingdom. Therefore, all such medical treatments that prolong the dying process while offering no benefit to the individual (with the exception of those ordinary measures previously stated) may, in good conscience, be refused by the individual or those acting on his or her behalf. In some instances, even food and water may become, in the last hours of life when the body may be unable to accept them, a burden from which the sufferer should be delivered: however, these are individual circumstances which should always be judged in a Christian context, and,

WHEREAS the taking of a human life, however understandable the motive, is a serious sin directly and repeatedly forbidden by God. Even where it seems an act of mercy, such as an attempt to alleviate suffering, without sincere repentance, it will surely lead to a loss of God’s Kingdom. As Christians we acknowledge that we do not always recognize God’s will and why things happen as they do in our world. However, we have, as the followers of Christ, promised to place our trust in Him and His love for us and all mankind. This trust includes the patient acceptance of those burdens which may seem, at the time, to be unbearable.

BE IT RESOLVED that this Archdiocese, in accordance with the Tradition and theology of the Orthodox Church condemns all forms of euthanasia or “mercy killing.”

Also of interest: OrthodoxyToday.com: Death with Piety is Death with Dignity, by Christopher Huckabay

picture from futiletreatment.wordpress.com

Divine-Human integrity

Disability does not contradict divine-human integrity. Rather, it becomes, in the crucified and resurrected Christ, a new model of spiritual wholeness. Jesus rose with his wounds; so, too, shall we.

– Fr. John Chyrssavgis

from Embracing All God’s Children: Orthodox Theology Concerning Disability and Its Implications for Ministry with Special Needs Youth in the Orthodox Church by Matushka Wendy Cwiklinski

picture from Under the Rose 

St. Matrona of Moscow, pray for us!

 St. Matrona is commemorated on April 19. 

St. Matrona of Moscow

Blind, paralyzed … a prophetess and healer. St. Matrona pray for us!

Origin of information: The Synaxarion: The Lives of the Saints

Excerpts:

. . . blind from birth, her eyes lacking pupils, she bore this infirmity with humility and patience, and God, in his turn, made her an elect vessel of grace. At the moment of her baptism, the priest saw a light cloud above the child, which shed forth a sweet fragrance as a sign of divine favor. From the age of six or seven, she exhibited an extraordinary gift of insight, discerning sicknesses of soul and body in the many people who visited her, revealing to them their secret sins and their problems, and healing them through prayer and wise counsel. . . . .

When she reached the age of seventeen, she was seized with paralysis and was unable to walk from then on. Knowing that this was God’s will, she never bemoaned her state but thanked the Lord. . . . .

One day when some visitors commiserated with her about her disablement, she replied: “A day came on which God opened my eyes, and I saw the light of the sun, the stars and all that exists in the world: the rivers, the forests, the sea and the whole of creation.” . . . .

Saint Matrona led the ascetic life on her bed of pain. She fasted constantly, slept little, her head resting on her chest, and her forehead was dented by the innumerable signs of the Cross that she made. Not only the Muscovites but also people from afar, of all ages and conditions, thronged around her to ask her advice and her prayers. In this way she truly became the support of the afflicted people, especially during the Second World War.

Before falling asleep in peace on 2 May/19 April 1952, she cried out: “Come close, all of you, and tell me of your troubles as though I were alive! I’ll see you, I’ll hear you, and I’ll come to your aid.” Miracles were multiplied at her tomb . . . .

For her story: http://ishmaelite.blogspot.com/2009/05/blessed-matrona-of-moscow.html

Also: http://www.antiochian.org/node/18294 & http://www.acrod.org/readingroom/saints/stmatrona & http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2012/05/saint-matrona-blind-of-moscow-1952.html

Image from http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2009/05/st-matrona-of-moscow.html

St. John Compassionate Mission

This mission of mercy, “one body and one spirit in Christ” with St. Silouan the Athonite Orthodox Church in Toronto, Canada,  serves it’s community, especially those who are poor and in need, in multi-faceted ways. Here is their website, a labyrinth of links explaining their ministries: St. John the Compassionate Mission, Toronto, Canada

One of their ministries is a bakery, which employs people with disabilities (who also have the ability to contribute to the making of some very fine bread)!  St. John’s Bakery – mission 

Jean Vanier eloquently describes the impact of the mission on the people of the St. John’s community; he describes the community as “a model, a sign, a sign of peace, in a world where many are locked up in their own little gang.” Read his testimony here: Jean Vanier Talk at Donor Dinner St John the Compassionate, 17 June 2008: Notes

St. John’s is also a training ground for those who wish to share their lives with those in need: Lived Theology School  &

Click to access BROTHERS-SISTERS-OF-MERCY-WEB.pdf

 

Crumbs of Bread

icon from Pappan’s People 

on washing feet

source: 

http://www.wfn.org/1998/08/msg00112.html

by Jean Vanier, of the L’Arche communities

A L’Arche community, with links to the others: http://www.larchejacksonville.org/

St. John Chrysostom’s social teachings and St. Basil the Great’s city come to mind as foundations for the kind of loving effort that L’Arche exemplifies. The day-to-day life at L’Arche, I’m sure they will admit, is often the struggle toward their ideals, rather than their seamless realization.  Nevertheless, L’Arche remains a challenge to the Orthodox Church to show forth the Incarnate Word more fruitfully in the realm of ministry to persons with developmental disability.

A Homily by Jean Vanier: On Washing Feet

Before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his time had come to depart from this world and to return to the Father, having loved his own, he loved them fully, he loved them to the end. And then, in the middle of this rather solemn meal, he got up and started taking off his clothes – the outer garment. You can imagine the surprise of the disciples.

Jesus is always surprising us. He doesn’t like it when we fall into little habits. He shakes us up. Imagine the disciples looking at Jesus and saying, “What’s going on?”

Jesus took off his outer robe. We know in the nineteenth chapter of John that Jesus had an outer robe, and under the robe what we call the tunic. The robe must have been pretty dirty, the robe of a poor person. The soldiers cut it into four, and they would use it for cleaning up. But the tunic was particularly beautiful – it had been woven from head to foot. It was one beautiful piece, and so the soldiers drew lots to see who would have it. So when Jesus takes off the outer garment he is dressed in this flimsy tunic which could go down to the knees or the ankles, sometimes with sleeves and sometimes without. He fills a basin with water, puts a towel around his waist, and starts washing the feet of his disciples.

He comes to Peter to wash Peter’s feet. Peter looks at him, “You? Wash my feet?”

“You cannot understand now, you shall understand later.”

“No! You shall never wash my feet!”

You see, Peter has a sense of hierarchy. There are people at the top and people at the bottom. He is quite prepared to wash the feet of Jesus. That is quite a normal and natural situation. And he would probably like people to wash his feet. That is to say, he has a sense of what all our societies are about – the vision of a pyramid. There are a few people at the top, and an immense number right at the bottom. Those at the bottom are the useless ones – people with disabilities, people maybe who are mentally sick, people out of work, immigrants. So Peter has this sense of a hierarchy.

What would we do if Jesus appeared in our homes and started washing the dishes, washing the floor, and maybe washing the toilets? What would our attitude be? “No! Please go into the sitting room. I will bring you some food. Don’t do that!” Peter has the same resistance, which maybe all of us have, to Jesus down at our feet. Maybe a very natural resistance even to have our feet washed. Peter had that resistance. “It is not in the order of things – it is not according to the culture. It shouldn’t be like this!” So the attitude of Peter is a normal and natural reaction. This is the reaction of a loyal person, who in reality has a lot of difficulties with Jesus. (We see this throughout the Gospels.)

What is more surprising is the reaction of Jesus. “If I cannot wash your feet, you shall have no more part with me.” These are very strong words and very powerful words. “If I cannot wash your feet, you cannot share in the Kingdom. The Kingdom will no longer be part of your heritage. You are no longer my disciple.” In fact, it can be so strong as, “If I cannot wash your feet, there is the door!” These are very strong words. Sometimes it is difficult for us to take them seriously.

Peter panics. “Well then, not only my feet, my head and my hands!” You see, he is a loyal person. But he is panicking. He couldn’t imagine that Jesus was going to put such a stake on the washing of the feet.

“If I cannot show that I want to be your servant, then you are no longer my friend. Because you must understand that message turns everything upside down.” Those who are at the bottom come up to the top.

Jesus washes the feet, and then he puts the bowl of water aside, takes off the towel, and puts on again the outer garment. And he says, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You called me Lord and Master … so I am. So if I have washed your feet, you must wash each other’s feet. I have done this as an example for you.” This is the only time that Jesus says, ‘I have done this as an example’. “So as I have done it to you, you must do it to each other. Verily, verily I say to you, the servant is not greater than the master, and the one who is sent is not greater than the
one who sends. Knowing this, if you do it you shall be blessed.”

You know that in the Gospel of Matthew there are the eight beatitudes or blessings. And in the Gospel of Luke there are the four blessings, or the four beatitudes. And here and there throughout the Gospels there are other beatitudes, other blessings. In L’Arche and Faith and Light there are two very special blessings. The first is in the fourteenth chapter of Luke when Jesus says “When you give a meal, don’t invite the members of your family, don’t invite your rich neighbours, don’t invite your friends. But when you give a really good meal – a banquet – invite the poor, the lame, the disabled, and the blind. And you shall be blessed. You shall have the benediction of God. God will be with you.” I say this is a special benediction for L’Arche and Faith and Light because, as you know to eat at the same table or to be invited to the same table, is not just to share roast beef, spaghetti and so on. It is to become a friend. That is what it is all about. If you become a friend of the poor, the lame, the disabled, and the blind – if you become vulnerable to them – you shall receive the blessing of God. And if you wash each other’s feet, then you receive the blessing of God.

You know that in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew and Mark, at this last important meal, Jesus institutes the Eucharist. Here in the Gospel of John, it doesn’t talk at all about the institution of the Eucharist. He talks only about the washing of each other’s feet. It is a little sign that these two realities – the institution of the Eucharist and the washing of each other’s feet – should not be separated. We are called to eat the Body of Christ so that we can wash each other’s feet, and wash the feet of the poor and the lame, the broken and the blind.

I would like to go a little bit deeper and ask why does Jesus wash our feet? And why does he ask us to wash each other’s feet? What is the signification behind it?

I think I discovered that a little bit living in L’Arche. And I said this afternoon that, after having been the leader in our community, I lived in one of our small homes where there were people with very severe disabilities. And I talked to you about the Lucien – the screams of Lucien, who brought up the screams in myself and brought up a lot of inner pain. We had also welcomed into that house, Eric. Eric had lived for twelve years in the psychiatric hospital. He was blind, he was deaf, he couldn’t walk, and he couldn’t feed himself. He was a man with an immense amount of anguish – a man who wanted to die. In the psychiatric hospital the nurses rather avoided him because he wasn’t
gratifying, he could do nothing. He came to our community, and in him there was this terrible desire to die. He vomited everything that he ate. He was just in immense anguish and immense pain. (I mentioned this afternoon Moses with his pain.) But with Eric it was even more painful. His anguish and his desire to die were evident.

I said that, for us in L’Arche or in Faith and Light, our mission in welcoming Eric is to help him to move from the desire to die to a desire to live. We want him to move from a feeling of being no good to a sense of his value and his worth – from a feeling of guilt to a feeling of trust. I said this afternoon that the only way that this can come about is through the transforming power of love. Through that love which reveals that you are beautiful; love that understands your pain and your needs; love which celebrates; love which empowers and calls you to be and to be
yourself; and a love that forgives. But for Eric, how will this be revealed to him? He is blind and he is deaf. So the only way of communication with Eric is through our hands. These are the incredible hands that we have been given by Jesus – hands that give security; hands that give peace; hands that manifest love. But hands that also can hurt; can take; can abuse.

I had the privilege of giving Eric his bath every morning, and to hold his little naked body in my arms. This was a fragile little man of sixteen. And through our hands (because it was not just me, but those of our community together) we revealed to him that he is beautiful. We are to touch people with a deep respect – to touch them with tenderness. Our hands, and not just our voices, may become vehicles of the love of Jesus. The Word became flesh,
that our flesh may become word. Our flesh, through the power of the Holy Spirit, can reveal to people their value – that they are cherished and loved by God.

Our hands are, in some mysterious way, a source of revelation of communion. Jesus, as he knelt down in front of the feet of his disciples, knows that tomorrow he will be dead. But he wants to have with each disciple a moment. Not just to say goodbye. Up until now he has just talked with the group. When you talk with a whole group you don’t have that individual contact with each person. Jesus wants that contact with each one of these people. He wants to touch them – to touch their feet; to touch their bodies; to touch them with tenderness and love. Maybe to each one
he says a word; maybe looks each one in the eye. There is a moment of communion.

So there is communion through the Body of Christ, where Jesus says “do this in memory of me”. But there is also this communion as he kneels at their feet. And later he will say “I have done this as an example for you. And what I have done to you, you must do one to another.” So this is a gesture of communion, of tenderness.

Jesus touched their bodies – a realization that each one is the Temple of God. “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is living in you.” I believe that Jesus must have touched these bodies with an immense respect and love and tenderness. He was revealing to them, in a special way, his love for them. But he also revealed to them that each one of them is beautiful, is chosen, and is loved. To continue this mission, which is his mission, to announce the good news to the poor, freedom to captives, sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed, and to announce a year of grace and forgiveness.

As you know water, in biblical language, refreshes but cleanses. And when Jesus is washing the feet of the disciples, he is cleansing their feet to show that he wants to cleanse their hearts. That is Jesus. He doesn’t judge, he doesn’t condemn; he cleanses. He just wants us to be people of the resurrection – people who stand up; people who believe in ourselves and in our gift; people who believe in the gift of Jesus – so that we can bring this gift to our broken world.

I believe also that as Jesus knelt at the feet of Judas, it must have been a particularly moving time. You see Judas has already the thirty pieces of silver in his pocket; he has already been to the priests of the Temple; he has already decided that he will show the guards where Jesus spends the night. (Because you know, they couldn’t arrest Jesus in broad daylight or there would be a revolt.) They have to find out where he is going to spend the night, and here Judas tells them. So the feet of Judas (his whole body) must be incredibly tense. This man must have hardened his entire body in front of the incredible tenderness of Jesus kneeling at his feet. Somewhere I wonder whether Jesus looked at him and said, “whatever you do, I want you to know that I love you.” And maybe the next day when Judas commits suicide, and as the noose tightens around his neck, maybe he remembers those eyes of Jesus. And maybe then his own eyes begin to be tearful. He remembers.

So Jesus washes the feet in a sense of cleansing. But also, Jesus is there on his knees as a servant, as a slave – to be there for us. There is something inconceivable that the Lord and master, in this flimsy tunic washing our feet, says to us “I want to serve you; I want to empower you. Because you will receive the Holy Spirit. And you must continue what I have done. You must be filled with the Spirit of God, so that you can go out to the ends of the earth, to bring that love to all people of all cultures.”

So Jesus is the servant. “Jesus who didn’t keep equality with God as something to be held on jealously. But he emptied himself.” He became just a human being. And he humbled himself even more. This is the downward road of Jesus – going down and down and down. And he calls us to walk with him in that downward path.

I know, we all know, how difficult it is to exercise authority and power. Either we are too controlling, and want everything to be in order – preventing people, or not permitting them to be empowered. We try in every way just to hold on to things. Or else we run away – we do nothing. We want to be popular and want everyone to love us, so we don’t make decisions. And we hurt people by making the decision of not making decisions.

Jesus knows that to exercise authority is not easy. I know myself. For many years I was responsible for my community. How quickly I could hurt people by not taking the time to listen to those who are weaker; to those who weren’t of my idea; to those who maybe had a different vision; to those who could criticize things which were really citicizable in me or in things that I had done. I saw a lot of fear in me. It is not easy to exercise authority. It is not easy to be parents – to help children to gradually come to freedom, and not to be there just to control them. Instead to help each one to become themselves.

Everyone one of us here, we exercise power in some way – as parents, teachers, priests, bishops. And we know that it is not easy servant leadership – to really give ourselves to others; to help each one to rise up; to know when to make decisions. It is difficult. We need that power of the Holy Spirit, because without that power of the Spirit we will never be able to exercise authority as Jesus exercises it.

And Jesus, as he kneels at our feet, is saying, “I want you to exercise your authority in love. As a good shepherd who gives his life for his sheep. Exercise authority with tenderness and love. Exercise authority in truth and in forgiveness. So when Jesus is at our feet there is something unacceptable. But he is teaching us. He is teaching us how he wants us to exercise authority – not from the top of the pedestal, but close to people. Confirm them; call them forth; empower them; help them to grow to freedom in truth.

Then Jesus, washing the feet of the disciples is saying something else. You see, Jesus came to transform the pyramid into a body. The pyramid, we know what it is. Some few have power and privileges and wealth. And at the bottom is the immense number of the poor and the broken. And Jesus wanted to transform this into a Body. That is why Paul, in the first letter to the Corinthians, talks about the Church as Body. Where every person is different, and everyone is important. Where the eye is different to the foot and the eye is different to the ear and so on. And he goes on to say that those parts of the body which are the least presentable, the weakest, are necessary to the body and should be honoured. I believe Paul is saying something about people with disabilities – they are necessary to the body and should be honoured.

And Jesus is saying something else. He wants us to discover the Church as Body where each one is important – where leadership is important, because the body needs the element of the leadership. But we are all together as brothers and sisters in the same Body. That we are one together in the Body which is inspired, motivated and inhabited by the Spirit of God.

Jesus is saying also something important about the relationship between the master and the slave. He is reminding us that henceforth we must look downward. Because God is hidden in the weak, and the poor, and the disabled. God is in the Body. He is saying, “be attentive to the littlest, to the weakest, to the poorest, to those who are the most broken; for I am living there.”

Jesus insists and says we are called to wash each other’s feet. Obviously this is symbolic. Jesus is saying that we must be, all of us together, must be servants of one and other – serving each other, empowering each other. We are not entering into that competitive game of ‘I know more than you’ or ‘My culture is better than your culture.’ But we are there to serve each other, to love each other.

So, the washing of the feet is symbolic. It is something about service; something about communion; something about mutual forgiveness, togetherness, and oneness. But at the same time Jesus insists so much about the washing of the feet, about touching the body, that I believe that this symbol is also sacrament. It is something very special. It is not just to talk with people, but to recognize that their body is the Temple of God. Recognize that the Spirit of God is living in them. Recognize that their body is precious. I believe that Jesus insists on the washing of feet because our bodies are precious, Temples of the Spirit.

We want to be in communion – one with another. We love each other. We may have divergences in vision, divergences in theological questions. This is normal. We come from cultures and backgrounds that are very different. Each one of us, we have our character traits. We have the wound in us. We have our fragility and our need to prove that ‘I am better than you’. So Jesus is saying something about communion – how to be with each other with
words that our not flowing from our woundedness, our darkness, and our need for power and superiority, but from a desire for oneness. And oneness is not exclusion of difference. Oneness is not fusion. Saint Paul says we are all different. It is the recognition of difference. But that doesn’t mean to say that we crush difference.

So we are called to be in communion, to forgive each other, to serve each other, and to discover that together we are all called to walk the downward path.

We are all called to be small. “The camel cannot go through the eye of the needle.” But we who carry authority and power, in some way we are called to be like little children. And we are called to serve each other in rectitude and in truth as Jesus. And as we become small, then maybe we can go through the eye of the needle.

And so this evening, that is what we are going to do. We do so in a witness of our desire to follow the humble Jesus, the broken Jesus, and the weeping Jesus – the Jesus who became little and humbled himself even more. In some way we want to follow Jesus on that downward path. This is the path which, as we go down, then with him we rise again to be a sign of resurrection in our world.

source of picture: Becoming: A journey of growth…an observation of the world around us

Trampling Down Death

Broadcast in Russian to Russia over Radio Liberty, Easter 1988, Year of the Millenium of the Baptism of Russia

Padre Richard's Blog

Trampling Down Death By Death

Archpriest George Benigsen

“If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then we have nothing to preach and you have nothing to believe.” (1 Cor 15:14). Thus the Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the young church of Corinth, places the fact of Christ’s resurrection from the dead as the very foundation of the Gospel teaching, the very foundation of our entire Christian faith. What some are inclined to consider a “myth,” or “invention,” the apostle affirms as unshakable fact, without which both faith and the church become the inventions of human fantasy. This apostolic witness, which is sacred for us, is preceded in the same epistle with the following words: “Christ died for our sins, as written in the scriptures. He was buried and raised to life on the third days, as written in the scriptures.” (1 Cor 15:3,4) These words “as written…

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He laid His life down for us

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 

1st letter of St. John 3:16

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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icon from GRANDE FORÊT

 

Russian Orthodox Patriarchate Speaks Out Against Euthanasia

from http://www.pravmir.com/article_141.html (Orthodoxy and the World) (originally from www.interfax-religion.com)

The deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin said that medical termination of newborn babies’ lives is unacceptable provided they are capable of independent viability. However, the advisability of artificial life-support may be questioned in some cases, he added.

‘Sometimes it is really questionable whether we should artificially support the functioning of a baby born obviously incapable of life. Christian common sense must be taken into account in such cases. We should remember that the Lord will receive the baby’s soul with love,’ Rev. Vsevolod told Interfax on Wednesday.

These are his comments on the Church of England Bishop Tom Butler’s recent saying that medical doctors should be given the right to terminate lives of seriously disabled newborns.

At the same time he underscored that so-called active euthanasia, when a human person capable of living without artificial life-support has his life terminated, is ‘absolutely unacceptable.’

‘The church always hopes for a miracle,’ he added.

Rev. Vsevolod said that in his practice as a priest he baptized babies ‘practically doomed to die by their physicians. Yet, they have grown absolutely healthy and enjoy the fullness of life making their parents happy.’

Reflections on Haleigh Poutre’s escape from euthanasia

A summary of Haleigh’s ordeal, by Steven Drake (from the weblog Not Dead Yet)

Haleigh

Haleigh Poutre narrowly escaped the death planned for her by medical professionals at Baystate Medical Center and publicly-appointed guardians from Massachussets DSS. These professionals all signed off and went to court to seek removal of both ventilator and feeding tube from Haleigh Poutre just 8 days after her admission to the hospital. Poutre was in a coma, the result of injuries allegedly inflicted on her by her adoptive mother and stepfather, Jason Strickland. (NDY issued a press release calling for a larger investigation than actually happened)

Poutre’s adoptive mother committed suicide. Strickland, quite probably to avoid being charged with murder, fought the DHS in court, seeking to have Poutre’s life-support maintained.

In a case of incredible irony, the case took enough time to allow Haleigh to improve. In fact, news reports that she was awake and responsive emerged just one day after judge approved the removal of Haleigh Poutre’s feeding tube.

Thank God, Haleigh’s life is on the upswing after these horrific abuses, first by those who formerly were her adoptive parents, and then by these judge and officials. Her recovery, Lord willing, will give pause to those who reason like the judges of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Medical Futility Blog: New Life for Haleigh Poutre after PVS  (source of picture)

Boston Globe: A new life for Haleigh, by Patricia Wen

The following posts reflect, in detail, on the issue of euthanasia, especially as it touches the lives of those with disabilities:

From the weblog Not Dead Yet: Haleigh Poutre- flawed lessons & Two Disability Advocates Respond to Two Assisted Suicide Proponents with Disabilities