Common Sense

Little Baby Daniel is waiting for death. Normally I would tell you that this is a bad thing, except under the circumstances, his doctors think that would be best for him.

You see, Baby Daniel has irreversible brain damage and cannot live without being hooked up to a breathing tube and a feeding tube. Those charged with caring for the 10-month-old and the ethics review board for the Children’s Medical Center Dallas have determined that what is best for him is to be removed from the machines and allowed to die. I happen to agree.

His mother, Dixie Belcher, does not.

She’s been fighting to stop the hospital in the courts. Under Texas’ Futile Care Act (which we’ve talked about before), the mother has 10 days to find another hospital to care for him.

Some background before you form an opinion. Ms. Belcher has had this happen before. Fourteen years ago, her first-born developed similar problems and had to be euthanized.

The reports from the officers who took Baby Daniel from his mother after his trachea tube was removed causing the brain damage:

On the day of Daniel’s accident, the Grand Prairie detectives described a dirty apartment that reeked of smoke despite the boy’s breathing problems and despite a sign on the door about his grandmother’s oxygen machine.

On a nightstand to the left of the crib was an ashtray with five cigarette butts. Next to it were two packs of Marlboros. On the stove was a pot with meat and congealed grease. The sink was two-thirds full with baby bottles and nipples soaking in water that was cloudy, as if it had been there a while. Trash overflowed onto the ground.

“In the living area, I observed another filter that had been removed from the trachea that appeared to be stained the color of nicotine, leading me to believe that the child had been breathing in second-hand smoke,” Detective Alan Frizzell wrote.

The mother also has a history of drug use. On the day before Daniel’s tube was removed, she tested positive for cocaine. There are also allegations of drug dealing and use in front of her older son.

The last thing is that she looks just like that inbred woman on the X-Files. You know, that episode where Sheriff Andy Griffith and his deputy Barney had to deal with finding a dead baby buried in the local baseball field under home plate. And it turned out that a local family was all inbred and the baby died. I think inbreeding would explain why this woman has had problems with her children and why she looks uncannily like that character.

Aside from family medical history, the fact remains that the prognosis for Baby Daniel is grim. Irreversible brain damage and a host of developmental problems associated with being born prematurely. I think the claims of response and cognitive ability are simply delusions cooked up by this mother who feels guilty over the inadequate parenting she provided. Her own guilt is leading her to be unnecessarily cruel to this child who has suffered enough on this earth.

Little Baby Daniel is waiting for death. Normally I would tell you that this is a bad thing, except under the circumstances, his doctors think that would be best for him.

You see, Baby Daniel has irreversible brain damage and cannot live without being hooked up to a breathing tube and a feeding tube. Those charged with caring for the 10-month-old and the ethics review board for the Children’s Medical Center Dallas have determined that what is best for him is to be removed from the machines and allowed to die. I happen to agree.

His mother, Dixie Belcher, does not.

She’s been fighting to stop the hospital in the courts. Under Texas’ Futile Care Act (which we’ve talked about before), the mother has 10 days to find another hospital to care for him.

Some background before you form an opinion. Ms. Belcher has had this happen before. Fourteen years ago, her first-born developed similar problems and had to be euthanized.

The reports from the officers who took Baby Daniel from his mother after his trachea tube was removed causing the brain damage:

On the day of Daniel’s accident, the Grand Prairie detectives described a dirty apartment that reeked of smoke despite the boy’s breathing problems and despite a sign on the door about his grandmother’s oxygen machine.

On a nightstand to the left of the crib was an ashtray with five cigarette butts. Next to it were two packs of Marlboros. On the stove was a pot with meat and congealed grease. The sink was two-thirds full with baby bottles and nipples soaking in water that was cloudy, as if it had been there a while. Trash overflowed onto the ground.

“In the living area, I observed another filter that had been removed from the trachea that appeared to be stained the color of nicotine, leading me to believe that the child had been breathing in second-hand smoke,” Detective Alan Frizzell wrote.

The mother also has a history of drug use. On the day before Daniel’s tube was removed, she tested positive for cocaine. There are also allegations of drug dealing and use in front of her older son.

The last thing is that she looks just like that inbred woman on the X-Files. You know, that episode where Sheriff Andy Griffith and his deputy Barney had to deal with finding a dead baby buried in the local baseball field under home plate. And it turned out that a local family was all inbred and the baby died. I think inbreeding would explain why this woman has had problems with her children and why she looks uncannily like that character.

Aside from family medical history, the fact remains that the prognosis for Baby Daniel is grim. Irreversible brain damage and a host of developmental problems associated with being born prematurely. I think the claims of response and cognitive ability are simply delusions cooked up by this mother who feels guilty over the inadequate parenting she provided. Her own guilt is leading her to be unnecessarily cruel to this child who has suffered enough on this earth.