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Mass. state court rules battered girl can die

Posted on: Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 12:33 CST

BOSTON (Reuters) - An 11-year-old girl beaten so badly she is in a permanent vegetative state can be taken off life support, Massachusetts' top court has ruled in a case that adds fuel to America's divisive "right to die" debate.

State officials will soon decide when to disconnect the breathing machines and feeding tubes keeping Haleigh Poutre alive after Tuesday's Supreme Judicial Court decision, which could lead to murder charges against her stepfather.

Her stepfather, Jason Strickland, is accused of battering 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, a 31-year-old auto mechanic, had fought to keep Poutre on life support -- a move that would have allowed him to avoid a charge of murder.

Court documents showed on Wednesday that the state's highest court sided with a juvenile court which decided in September that the Department of Social Services could disconnect Haleigh's life support.

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 was as much about who has legal rights to the girl, who is now in state custody, as it is about her ultimate fate and whether the state can remove the ventilator and feeding tube 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 had asked the Supreme Judicial Court to overturn the juvenile court judge's decision that the man has no legal rights over the girl. Strickland, who never adopted the child, wanted to be legally recognized as her de-facto father because he lived with Haleigh for four years.

If the court had granted his wish, it would have allowed Stickland to decide whether to take Haleigh off life support.

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.

The court heard that Haleigh's doctors "have consistent medical opinion about her current condition" and all had agreed she will not regain consciousness.

Source: REUTERS

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