Terri Schiavo Analogue Recurs

According to Sean O’sullivan, Parents battle over life of brain-damaged daughter, delawareonline.com, Jan. 31, 2008:

In a case with parallels to the 2005 uproar over Terri Schiavo, a Newark father is fighting a court order that could allow the removal of a feeding tube and end the life of his brain-damaged daughter.***

According to court records, Lauren Marie Richardson, 23, is in a persistent vegetative state following a heroin overdose in August 2006. She was pregnant at the time and was kept alive at Christiana Hospital — with feeding tubes and a breathing machine — to allow her to give birth, which she successfully did in February 2007 to a healthy baby girl.

Late last week, a court awarded guardianship of Lauren Richardson to her mother, Edith Towers, who maintains her daughter did not wish to live this way and seeks to end artificial life support measures.***

Lauren Richardson, a Glasgow High School graduate, did not leave a “living will” stating her desires in such a situation, or use a mechanism in the Delaware law called an Advanced Health Care Directive, a simple form a person can fill out to make their end-of-life wishes clear.***

Special thanks to Alyssa A. DiRusso (Assistant Professor, Cumberland School of Law, Samford University) for bringing this article to my attention.