Haleigh Poutre

Innocence Lost

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Allison Avrett gave birth, in 1994, to a beautiful little girl named Haleigh Poutre. By the time she was a toddler her mother subjected her to severe abuse, and allowed a man to beat and brutally rape her. When Haleigh was six, Allison abandoned her at her sister's house and ran away to Virginia with a new boyfriend. Holli Strickland, Allison's sister, adopted Haleigh. Holli lived with a, now 31 year old, Westfield Massachusetts auto mechanic named Jason Strickland. A year later Jason and Holli were married. Jason was not the father type and soon started beating and mentally torturing little Haleigh. When reports were made to the Department of Social Services regarding both neglect and cuts and bruises on the girl's body, they were satisfactorily explained away by the Stricklands as self inflicted wounds and accidents stemming from the emotional abuse Haleigh experienced earlier in life. Yet on September 11th, four months ago, Haleigh was taken to the hospital with severe head trauma, cuts, burns, shattered teeth and massive bruises. It seems Jason and Holli decided to punch and kick the baby while beating her with a baseball bat. Haleigh was now in a coma.


Two weeks after beating her daughter, Holli Strickland went to her grandmother's home, shot and killed her, then turned the gun on herself in what was officially classified as 'murder suicide'.

DSS assumed custody of Haliegh and the State hired doctors who determined that she was in a persistent or 'Permanent' Vegetative State. Immediately after the doctor's findings, the State went to court to ask that Haleigh be removed from life support and "allowed to die with dignity".

Knowing that if the State was granted it's de facto authorization, his assault charges would become murder charges; Strickland challenged the State's custody on grounds that his years as Haleigh's stepfather qualified him to be considered her de facto parent, thus granting him custody and say over whether her Life support would continue.





The Court's Ruling: Death !
The Court decided this past Tuesday that Haleigh was, “in an irreversible and permanent coma, with the least amount of brain function that a person can have and still be considered alive.” Mr. Strickland's bid to be granted custody was quashed along with, it seemed, any hope that Haliegh would be allowed more than the four months to recover. When Strickland's lawyer, John Egan, requested that Haliegh get an opinion from a neutral physician, the judge said, "When you have consistent medical opinions, why do you have to find a doctor who might challenge that?" When questioned about her decisions in the right to life case, Judge Peel said,"This is not about the right to life, this is about the circumstance under which this person is allowed to die."

DSS Lawyer, Mrs. Stern was later asked about Strickland's fight to save Haleigh. “I think it was more of a way to stall the inevitable ... to protect himself from possibly being charged with murder.” She went on to say, “It's a bittersweet feeling knowing that she won't have to suffer anymore. But at the same time, it's the loss of a child.”
I am proud of my decision to fight for the life of Terri Schiavo. I still say, to this day that Terri was denied equal justice under the law, the Florida Courts were criminally negligent and non-compliant with a Congressional order to produce Terri for a 'De Novo' review. So as far as I am concerned, Terri was used by the 'Right to Die' crowd to set an illegal and immoral precidence. Yet in Haleigh's case I did not think she was given enough time to recover and did not feel as if she was afforded the right to an unbiased evaluation, and now, I have been proven correct yet again.

Two days ago, Wednesday Jan 18th, the Dept of Social Services ordered that the ventilator and feeding tubes be removed. I had not reviewed the medical reports and I made the mistake of assuming that the State was competent in their decision. If Haleigh could not live more than a matter of hours without the ventilator, I was prepared to pray for her speedy accent to God's loving arms. I would not want her to suffer anymore than she had to. If she was finished fighting, I said, let her go in peace. Knowing the possibility that the 'Right to Die' crowd was involved though, I was hesitant to make a conclusion......Until they pulled the plugs on Wednesday.

God's Ruling: Life !

DSS spokes woman Denise Monteiro said that 11-year-old Haleigh was found to have begun to breath on her own after surgeons inserted a tracheostomy tube in her larynx. She was asked Thursday if they would continue to remove Haleigh's feeding tubes. Monteiro said, " As her guardians we wouldn't even consider that now that we have new hope." Let's hold her to that!
So it appears that Haleigh is now breathing on her own and is responding to stimuli. Now we have an entirely new case! Now, Haleigh's case is similar to that of Terri Schiavo. Shy of food and water, Haleigh needs no life support. If Massachusetts lets the same death advocates come in and force their hand to remove her tubes, more than Haleigh Poutre will be will be lost. Another precidence will be logged in the favor of death over life.

PVS ~ vs~ The Fourteenth Amendment

First of all, the DSS is not completely to blame for not taking her away from her home soon enough. The Stricklands produced a psychologist who had been treating Haleigh for psychiatric disorders. He backed up their claim by stating that Haleigh was 'self inflicting' the wounds due to this disorder. Directly after the last DSS visit, Holli tried to put Haleigh up for adoption but beat her into a coma before following through. I don't fault them for that, I fault them for trying to save money by expediting her to the plug pulling ceremonies. As we have seen with Oregon's recent 'Physician assisted homicide' case, and the culture of death in America, our States are none too languid about processing these right to die cases. All a doctor must utter is "PVS" (which is becoming so popular it can now be considered an acronym) and justices say, "Pull the tube" before the attorneys take their seats. Fellow Americans, this has to change. When Judge Peel said that this was, "about the circumstance under which this person is allowed to die", she was dead wrong. We do not have a right to die. You cannot find it anywhere in the Constitution. Yet you can look up Section I of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution and find that we do have a 'Right to Life'. " No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;"

Choose Life !

We the people are suppose to be in charge here. We must write our Congressmen and Massachusetts's Congressmen and tell them, there is a difference between life support and basic support such as food and water. Tell them to keep their hands off our loved one's feeding tubes! When State governments do not treat life as the most important issue, liberal's own brand of phony, plastic, compassion trumps life. "Let her die in peace and with dignity!" Is the cry of the misled gaggle of America's great un-washed. That sounds so heartfelt and compassionate.....but it is a morally deficient conclusion. If you want her to die with dignity, give her the best medical treatments and leave the rest to God. How long should she have to recover? She deserves all the time she needs. One thing is for certain, she needed and deserved more than 4 months. Haleigh's improvements support that. What has happened to our sense of value regarding human life in this nation? How long will we allow our most vulnerable to be subjected to misguided liberal ideology? How long will we continue to suffer this culture of death in America? How long until it effects you or your loved one? Haleigh may very well die, even with the feeding tube. If she does, I for one, will be satisfied knowing she was afforded every measure to save her life. Knowing that someone in her horrible little world loved her enough to try and nurse her to some stable life is much more humane and "Dignified" than yanking the plug and tossing her in a hole. Don't give me that, 'She shouldn't have to suffer' excrement either. I'd be willing to suffer (under a doctor's care and medication) for four months, if it meant I had a chance to live!

The Good Life
" Oh but Ken, she won't have an acceptable quality of life." Hog wash !!!! I am deaf in one ear, I have a reduced ability to discern sound direction. Some could argue that my quality of life is reduced. To whom do we assign arbitration? Who should have the final say, when it comes to the end of life? Liberals say it should be the Judicial system. Let's see, is that the same judicial system that recently made it legal to take your home and give it over to another private citizen, made it legal to indiscriminately murder babies in the womb, gives a child molester 3 months for four years worth of molestation, and is joining with the anti-American ACLU to systemically remove our religious and civil rights? No thank you, I will keep my trust in God.
Please join me in praying for Haleigh. She needs and deserves our thoughts and prayers. While you are at it, you might petition the Lord to support those who fight to quash this cancerous 'Culture of Death' in our great society.