Doctors split over keeping 11-year-old on life support

By Associated Press

Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - Updated: 03:59 PM EST

SPRINGFIELD - Doctors are split over whether the state should remove the feeding tube from a comatose 11-year-old girl at the center of a right-to-die legal battle after she was allegedly beaten by her adoptive parents.

According to court documents released Wednesday, two doctors for Haleigh Poutre agree she should be removed from her ventilator, but one of them is opposed to removing her feeding tube.

If she is taken off the ventilator but continues to receive nourishment through the feeding tube, Haleigh would die “anytime from several weeks up to two months,” the doctors said.

“Without the feeding tube, the child’s demise would likely occur in a substantially shorter period of time,” according to the documents.

The documents don’t explain why the doctors are split over the issue.

Haleigh has been virtually brain dead since being hospitalized in September with brain stem injuries. Authorities say she was beaten nearly to death by her aunt and her husband, who were the girl’s adoptive parents.

The state Department of Social Services now has custody of the girl and is seeking to end her life support.

Denise Monteiro, a spokeswoman for the agency, declined to comment on the case Wednesday, but said Haleigh remains hospitalized in critical condition.

A Juvenile Court judge has approved the agency’s request to take Haleigh off life support, but that decision is being appealed before the state’s highest court, which will hear arguments in the case next week.

Haleigh’s aunt, Holli Strickland, and her husband were charged with beating the 11-year-old.

Holli Strickland was fatally shot in what police say was either a double murder or a murder-suicide. The husband, Jason Strickland, is out on bail after pleading innocent to assault and battery charges.

He is fighting to keep Haleigh on life support. If she dies, he could face murder charges.

His lawyer, John Egan, said the possibility of being charged with murder is not influencing his client.

“I have not seen any evidence that he has anything but the interests of the child in the forefront of his considerations,” Egan said.

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=114886&format=text

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Right to die case a special pleading

By Boston Herald editorial staff

Friday, December 2, 2005

Don’t expect members of Congress to hold news conferences over the latest right-to-die case. At least let’s hope not. This one is right here in Massachusetts, and while it involves the incredibly sad case of a comatose 11-year-old girl, this is no Terri Schiavo case.

Haleigh Poutre has been on a ventilator and a feeding tube since she was hospitalized in September with what doctors described as a brain stem injury — the result of a near-fatal beating, according to authorities, at the hands of her adoptive parents, an aunt and her husband.

Haleigh is officially in the custody of the Department of Social Services. A Juvenile Court judge has already approved the removal of life support. Haleigh’s aunt, Holli Strickland, was shot in what police believe might have been a double murder or murder-suicide.

Now would it surprise anyone that John Strickland, who faces charges of assault and battery on Haleigh, is the one most interested in keeping her on life support? In fact, he has appealed the case to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court, which will hear argument on it next week.

“I have not seen any evidence that he has anything but the interests of the child in the forefront of his considerations,” said Strickland’s lawyer, John Egan.

The fact that he could face murder charges should Haleigh be allowed to die, of course, would never enter his calculation. On the other hand, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Rep. Tom DeLay would likely not want a photo-op with John Strickland.

http://news.bostonherald.com/opinion/view.bg?articleid=115115&format=text

High court to hear life support case involving 11-year-old girl

By Associated Press

Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - Updated: 03:34 PM EST

BOSTON - A man accused of beating his stepdaughter tried to convince a skeptical Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday that he should have a say in whether the 11-year-old is removed from life support.

Jason Strickland, who could face a murder charge if Haleigh Poutre dies, wants the state’s highest court to overturn a juvenile court judge’s decision that he has no parental rights over the girl, who is now in state custody.

“Without intervention from this court, this child will die,” said John Egan, one of Strickland’s lawyers.

Haleigh was hospitalized in September with severe brain injuries. Police say she had been beaten by Strickland and his wife, Holli, who was Haleigh’s adoptive mother.

Within two weeks of being charged with assault and battery, Holli Strickland, who was also Haleigh’s aunt, was found dead alongside her grandmother in a possible murder-suicide. Jason Strickland, a 31-year-old auto mechanic, is free on bail while awaiting trial on assault charges.

In September, a juvenile court judge granted a request from the state Department of Social Services to disconnect Haleigh’s ventilator and feeding tube. Strickland is trying to fight that ruling by arguing he should be designated as the girl’s de facto parent because he lived with her for four years.

But that argument didn’t fly with some of the justices. “That’s not going to do it,” Chief Justice Margaret Marshall said.

Both she and Justice John Greaney indicated they are unlikely to give Strickland what he wants.

“He has no standing,” Marshall said.

She said de facto parenthood is typically reserved for someone being prevented from having a relationship with a child by the child’s biological parent.

Greaney expressed concern about putting the girl in the custody of her alleged abuser.

Strickland’s lawyers say the state has pushed for removal of Haleigh’s life support, but no one has argued that the girl should live.

“There should always be someone who will argue for life,” Egan said.

Strickland has been denied access to the juvenile court proceedings because he is not a parent. His lawyers also argued Tuesday for those records to be unsealed.

Virginia Peel, a lawyer for DSS, which has legal custody of the girl, said Haleigh’s doctors have agreed she will not come out of her vegetative state.

“This is not about the right to life,” Peel said. “This is about the circumstance under which this person is allowed to die.”

Both of Haleigh’s doctors agree she should be removed from the ventilator, but they are split over whether her feeding tube should be disconnected.

They have said that with her feeding tube alone, Haleigh could live as long as two months. Without any life support assistance, she would die much sooner, the doctors said.

Egan said Strickland should be allowed to have another doctor examine the girl, but Peel said that isn’t necessary.

“When you have consistent medical opinions, why do you have to find a doctor who might - who might - challenge that,” she said.

Haleigh was adopted by her aunt about five years ago after her biological mother moved to Virginia with a new boyfriend. Jason Strickland never formally adopted the girl, but is arguing that as the stepfather, he should be considered a de facto parent and allowed to have a say in whether she lives or dies.

A baby sitter for Haleigh testified last week in Westfield District Court that she had watched Holli Strickland repeatedly kick Haleigh down a flight of stairs and beat her with a baseball bat. She also said Jason Strickland had hit Haleigh with an open hand and a plastic stick.

http://news.bostonherald.com/opinion/view.bg?articleid=115115&format=text

Published Tuesday, December 6, 2005

End-of-Life Case Questions Who Is Fit to Decide It

By PAM BELLUCK

The New York Times

BOSTON -- Eleven-year-old Haleigh Poutre was taken to the hospital three months ago with a terrifying catalog of injuries.

Her teeth were broken, her face was swollen, her chest had old and new burns. She was extremely thin, her abdomen was sunken, she had cuts and sores, and her temperature was 81 degrees.

But the most severe injury was in Haleigh's brain: Her brain stem was partly sheared, doctors said, leaving her in a vegetative state.

The police said Haleigh's aunt, Holli A. Strickland, who adopted Haleigh in 2001, and her husband, Jason D. Strickland, both of Westfield, Mass., were responsible for abuse that caused Haleigh's injuries. Then, the day after Holli Strickland was released on bail, she and her grandmother were found dead in an apparent murdersuicide, leaving Jason Strickland alone facing criminal charges in Haleigh's case.

Now, the case has been catapulted to a new stage: a battle over whether to remove the machines keeping Haleigh alive.

The Massachusetts Department of Social Services, which has legal custody of Haleigh, is seeking to remove life support, and a Juvenile Court judge granted its request after a hearing in September. But Jason Strickland, Haleigh's stepfather, does not want life support removed. On Tuesday, the case will go before the state's highest court.

The Haleigh Poutre case is an unusual end-of-life dispute, involving questions about not only what should be done but whether certain family members have the right to influence the decision.

While the widely publicized Terri Schiavo case involved a dispute between Schiavo's husband and parents over whether to disconnect life support, in Haleigh's case, the state is her only legal guardian.

Strickland, who married Haleigh's aunt just before she adopted Haleigh, never adopted the child himself, so the courts have given him no legal standing. On Tuesday, he will ask the Supreme Judicial Court to recognize him as Haleigh's de facto father, a request the Juvenile Court has denied. Strickland has not been allowed to see Haleigh's medical records or to visit her at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.

Strickland's criminal case further complicates things. He is charged with assault and battery, accused of striking Haleigh once with an open hand and once with a plastic toy, and of not stopping Strickland when she committed more serious assaults, such as hitting Haleigh with a baseball bat and kicking her existing bruises.

Some relatives think Strickland wants to keep Haleigh alive because, if she dies, he could be charged with murder. His lawyer, John J. Egan, disagrees.

"The end-of-life issues aren't about him, they're about the child," said Egan, who filed a brief saying, among other things, that Haleigh called Strickland "Daddy," that he helped raise her and took her to dance classes, and that Haleigh's Catholic faith might have made her opposed to ending life support.

Egan said the idea that Strickland, a 31-year-old auto mechanic who has pleaded not guilty, did not have Haleigh's interests at heart was "a convenient way to dismiss a serious discussion about the end-of-life issues."

While the state has blocked Strickland's involvement, it has consulted Haleigh's birth mother, Allison Avrett, who lost custody of Haleigh when she was 4 because of "substantiated allegations of abuse," said Denise Monteiro, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services. That abuse, according to Egan's brief, involved assaults by Avrett's boyfriend at the time.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051206/NEWS/512060391/1039