PrayersForMaura
Help Find Maura Murray
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WESTFIELD, Mass. Dec 5, 2005 Photos hanging on Allison Avrett's living room wall show her daughter Haleigh as a smiling little girl with brown bangs hanging over her squinting eyes.
Most of the pictures were taken before Avrett gave Haleigh up for adoption five years ago and long before the alleged beating that landed the 11-year-old in a hospital attached to the ventilator and feeding tube that keep her alive.
Now, with Haleigh's doctors saying she will never recover from her vegetative state, the child is at the center of a right-to-die legal struggle.
The state Department of Social Services, which has had custody of Haleigh since she was hospitalized Sept. 11, wants to remove her from life support.
Her stepfather, Jason Strickland, who is charged in her beating and could be tried for murder if she dies, wants to keep her alive. Strickland is free on bail while awaiting trial.
A juvenile court judge has ruled that Haleigh should be allowed to die. Strickland has appealed, and the state's highest court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case Tuesday.
Avrett, who gave up her parental rights when she let her sister Holli adopt Haleigh in 2000, says her daughter should not suffer anymore.
"They say the most she might ever do is open her eyes," said Avrett, a 29-year-old stay-at-home mom with two other children. "I don't want her to sit there longer than she needs to."
Police say the injuries that left Haleigh with severe brain stem injuries came at the hands of Strickland and his wife Holli Allison Avrett's sister.
More... http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=1373187&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
Most of the pictures were taken before Avrett gave Haleigh up for adoption five years ago and long before the alleged beating that landed the 11-year-old in a hospital attached to the ventilator and feeding tube that keep her alive.
Now, with Haleigh's doctors saying she will never recover from her vegetative state, the child is at the center of a right-to-die legal struggle.
The state Department of Social Services, which has had custody of Haleigh since she was hospitalized Sept. 11, wants to remove her from life support.
Her stepfather, Jason Strickland, who is charged in her beating and could be tried for murder if she dies, wants to keep her alive. Strickland is free on bail while awaiting trial.
A juvenile court judge has ruled that Haleigh should be allowed to die. Strickland has appealed, and the state's highest court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case Tuesday.
Avrett, who gave up her parental rights when she let her sister Holli adopt Haleigh in 2000, says her daughter should not suffer anymore.
"They say the most she might ever do is open her eyes," said Avrett, a 29-year-old stay-at-home mom with two other children. "I don't want her to sit there longer than she needs to."
Police say the injuries that left Haleigh with severe brain stem injuries came at the hands of Strickland and his wife Holli Allison Avrett's sister.
More... http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=1373187&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312