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Court hears "right to die" case of battered girl
By Jason Szep 1 hour, 43 minutes ago
BOSTON (Reuters) - A man facing a possible murder charge for beating his stepdaughter so badly she is in a permanent vegetative state asked Massachussetts' top court on Tuesday to keep her alive in a case that highlights the divisive "right to die" issue in America.
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Jason Strickland, a 31-year-old auto mechanic, is accused of battering 11-year-old Haleigh Poutre, whose brain was found partly sheared when she was hospitalized on September 11. Her body was covered with burns, cuts and bruises and her teeth were broken.
Strickland's wife -- the child's maternal aunt and sole legal guardian -- was found shot dead on September 22 with her grandmother in an apparent murder-suicide a day after police accused her of hitting Haleigh with a baseball bat.
The case is as much about who has legal rights to the girl, who is now on life support in state custody, as it is about her ultimate fate and whether the state can remove the breathing machines and feeding tubes keeping her alive.
It carries echoes of the case of
Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman taken off life support in March after a legal battle that galvanized the Christian right and drew in
President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress.
Strickland's lawyers asked the Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday to overturn a juvenile court judge's decision that the man has no legal rights over the girl. The court's seven justices are expected to rule within 130 days.
"I would respectfully say that without intervention by this court, this child will die," Strickland's attorney, Jack Egan, told the one-day hearing.
A juvenile court decided in September that the Department of Social Services could disconnect Haleigh's life support.
But Strickland, who never adopted the child, wants to be legally recognized as her de-facto father because he lived with Haleigh for four years.
If the court grants his wish, it would allow Stickland to decide whether to take Haleigh off life support and could also allow him to avoid a charge of murder.
Justice John Greaney questioned the wisdom of putting the girl's fate in the hands of her alleged abuser.
"When you talk about de-facto parent you are talking about someone who is substituting for the real parent who is nurturing and taking care of the child," he said.
"You don't talk about it in terms, as it seems to me that you have here, of someone who has inflicted injuries on the child and has harmed that child...," he said. "That would turn the whole concept completely on its head."
Haleigh's birth mother, 29-year-old Allison Avrett, lost custody of the girl when she was four years old because of allegations of abuse, said the Department of Social Services, whose lawyers have consulted Avrett in the case.
Avrett has said she would prefer the removal of Haleigh's life support system.
"This is not about a right to life. This is about the circumstances under which this person is going to be allowed to die," said Virginia Peel, a social services lawyer.
Peel said Haleigh's doctors "have consistent medical opinion about her current condition" and all agree she will not regain consciousness.
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You really have to wonder about the DHS system...the girl was taken away at 4 yrs old from her birth mother for 'allegations of abuse', and gets beaten basically to death by the people DHS placed her with? it seems odd to me.....I wonder how things would have turned out had the girl stayed with her birth mother?
By Jason Szep 1 hour, 43 minutes ago
BOSTON (Reuters) - A man facing a possible murder charge for beating his stepdaughter so badly she is in a permanent vegetative state asked Massachussetts' top court on Tuesday to keep her alive in a case that highlights the divisive "right to die" issue in America.
ADVERTISEMENT
click here
Jason Strickland, a 31-year-old auto mechanic, is accused of battering 11-year-old Haleigh Poutre, whose brain was found partly sheared when she was hospitalized on September 11. Her body was covered with burns, cuts and bruises and her teeth were broken.
Strickland's wife -- the child's maternal aunt and sole legal guardian -- was found shot dead on September 22 with her grandmother in an apparent murder-suicide a day after police accused her of hitting Haleigh with a baseball bat.
The case is as much about who has legal rights to the girl, who is now on life support in state custody, as it is about her ultimate fate and whether the state can remove the breathing machines and feeding tubes keeping her alive.
It carries echoes of the case of
Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman taken off life support in March after a legal battle that galvanized the Christian right and drew in
President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress.
Strickland's lawyers asked the Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday to overturn a juvenile court judge's decision that the man has no legal rights over the girl. The court's seven justices are expected to rule within 130 days.
"I would respectfully say that without intervention by this court, this child will die," Strickland's attorney, Jack Egan, told the one-day hearing.
A juvenile court decided in September that the Department of Social Services could disconnect Haleigh's life support.
But Strickland, who never adopted the child, wants to be legally recognized as her de-facto father because he lived with Haleigh for four years.
If the court grants his wish, it would allow Stickland to decide whether to take Haleigh off life support and could also allow him to avoid a charge of murder.
Justice John Greaney questioned the wisdom of putting the girl's fate in the hands of her alleged abuser.
"When you talk about de-facto parent you are talking about someone who is substituting for the real parent who is nurturing and taking care of the child," he said.
"You don't talk about it in terms, as it seems to me that you have here, of someone who has inflicted injuries on the child and has harmed that child...," he said. "That would turn the whole concept completely on its head."
Haleigh's birth mother, 29-year-old Allison Avrett, lost custody of the girl when she was four years old because of allegations of abuse, said the Department of Social Services, whose lawyers have consulted Avrett in the case.
Avrett has said she would prefer the removal of Haleigh's life support system.
"This is not about a right to life. This is about the circumstances under which this person is going to be allowed to die," said Virginia Peel, a social services lawyer.
Peel said Haleigh's doctors "have consistent medical opinion about her current condition" and all agree she will not regain consciousness.
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You really have to wonder about the DHS system...the girl was taken away at 4 yrs old from her birth mother for 'allegations of abuse', and gets beaten basically to death by the people DHS placed her with? it seems odd to me.....I wonder how things would have turned out had the girl stayed with her birth mother?