Lauren Richardson, photo via lifesite.net

Terri, the Rerun?: Father fights for life of cognitively disabled daughter

The father of a twenty-three year old woman who suffered an anoxic brain injury after an August 28, 2006 accident, is fighting for her life, in a case that has strong parallels to the infamous Terri Schiavo case, reports John Jalsevac, LifeSiteNews.com.

Lauren Richardson suffered the brain injury after a heroine overdose in 2006. Since then the young woman has been kept on basic life support, which, at present, is limited to a feeding tube. Pregnant at the time of the accident, Richardson subsequently gave birth to a healthy child, while on life support, in February 2007.

A poster on the delawareonline news blog (where Richardson's story was first made public), who claims to personally know all of the family members as well as Lauren, explained that Lauren's overdose happened after she had been clean for six months, after finding out that she was pregnant. Lauren, who had been the valedictorian of her class, allegedly unknowingly used heroine laced with an even more powerful drug, which lead to the overdose.

Another poster responded to others who denounced Lauren as irresponsible for having taken heroine while pregnant, and who said that she had brought her own condition upon herself, saying, "My son was Lauren's senior prom date at Glasgow. They last spoke in July 2006. She was excited about being pregnant and she was getting clean. It is just so sad that she had to backslide and that it is so devastating."

"Unless you understand addiction, do not be so quick to condemn."

While medical personnel have claimed that Richardson is in a Permanent Vegetative State, Richardson's father, Randy Richardson, says that his daughter, while severely handicapped, is both responsive and not terminally ill. He has said that with therapy his daughter could be re-taught to eat, and would have no need of the feeding tube.

A video released last week shows Lauren sitting up in a wheel-chair, looking around, and apparently responding to her father. (See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS1xOju1znk)

The young woman's mother, however, Edith Towers, who is divorced from her husband, has claimed that Lauren would not want to continue living in the condition that she is currently in. Several weeks ago a court awarded custody of Lauren to her mother, on the understanding that Towers would order the removal of her daughter's feeding tube.

"All the medical evidence supplied by the physicians…is in agreement: Lauren is not in a coma but is in a persistent vegetative state," wrote Delaware Court of Chancery Master Sam Glasscock III. "She is unable to communicate or experience consciousness. Her continued existence is dependent upon tube feeding and hydration.…No improvement in her condition can be expected."

The starvation and dehydration of the young woman, however, has been put on hold for at least three months, after her father appealed the court's decision. He has repeatedly expressed his willingness to take care of his daughter. "We just want to give her a chance," said Richardson, pointing out that his daughter was not being kept alive by extraordinary measures. "There is no life support except…a feeding tube," he said.

Last Friday Richardson appeared on the Hannity and Holmes show on Fox News, to explain the case. Richardson claimed that Lauren can indicate to nurses in her hospice when she is uncomfortable. He also informed the audiences that Lauren's drug relapse occurred after a heated exchange with her mother, in which her mother had urged her daughter to abort her unborn child. (See: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328085,00.html. Click on "Watch Segment" under "Video" to the left to see the video)

The judge in the case, however, ruled in favor of claims by Lauren's mother and one other relative, that Lauren had at times in the past made statements to the effect that she would not like to be kept alive on life support in the instance of a serious accident.

The lawyer that once represented the Schindler family in their attempt to fight the court-ordered starvation and dehydration of their daughter and sister, Terri Schiavo, has said that this case is "eerily" similar to the Schiavo case.

"My heart goes out to the family, to the mother and the father," said Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo's brother, in an interview with LifeSiteNews. "It's a horrible situation to be in."

Schindler said that he has been in communication with Richardson's father for some time now, and said that the father had hoped "it wouldn't get to this," referring to the heating-up court battle over his daughter's fate.

"We didn't want to do this," Richardson has previously told news-media, about his decision to go public with his daughter's case. "It's not in my nature to speak to newspapers….But if I don't, who will? I love my daughter."

"She's committed no crime and doesn't deserve to have this death imposed on her."

"My reaction is this:" said Bobby Schindler about Lauren's case, "The young woman is cognitively disabled and we're going to dehydrate her to death. The judge ruled to dehydrate her to death based on hearsay evidence."

"This young girl is getting food and water, she's not dying, and I believe that the father should be allowed to take care of her. It's really as simple as that we don't know for sure what her wishes are, so why not err on the side of caution, err on the side of life? She's a woman with a disability, and she needs to be taken care of."

Schindler said that his experiences with his sister taught him that the West is moving in the direction of judging people's worth based upon quality of life, and not intrinsic dignity. "I think our culture has shifted to a quality of life assessment, where we are making life-and-death decisions now on someone's quality of life. We are discriminating against people with disabilities. We've lost our sense of compassion. We've become desensitized to the value and dignity of all life, whether they have disability or not."

"We're talking about basic care here," Schindler emphasized. "We're talking about food and water. I don't think I can emphasize that enough. It's just food and water. So what can we do? We can recognize these people as people in need of our love and compassion. We can do what we are supposed to do. And that's care for them, not simply create ways to justify killing them."

"What is going on with our culture today when we are looking at these people and seeing inconvenience. These aren't easy issues. But what other choice do we have? I tell you, it's frightening the direction our country, not only is heading, but already has headed."

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[02/07/2008]

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