MAINE Teen mom fights state over DNR order

Associated Press

PORTLAND, MAINE

A teenage mother is fighting a do-not-resuscitate order imposed on her brain-damaged daughter, saying she should be responsible for medical decisions. Child-welfare officials who intervened after the baby was severely injured say life-saving measures in the event she stops breathing would only prolong her suffering.

The mother, Virginia Trask, originally agreed to the do-not-resuscitate order. At one point, the infant was removed from life support and placed in her arms to die, then opened her eyes and began breathing.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Maine and Christian Civic League of Maine are joining the Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based conservative legal group, in supporting the 18-year-old mother’s request to lift the judge- approved order.

“Everyone deserves a fighting chance to live,” said Steve Aden, from the Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief. “All she’s doing is fighting for her baby.”

Maine’s supreme court will hear arguments later this month.

The case is unusual. Art Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, said he’d never heard of a similar case in which a do-not-resuscitate order was imposed against a mother’s wishes.

“It could set some precedent for setting parental rights in some pretty horrible circumstances,” he said. “It could set some precedent with regards to medical authority.”

Aleah Peaslee was 6 months old in December when she was shaken by her father at their Augusta home while the girl’s mother was at work, prosecutors say. The girl, now in foster care, suffered profound injuries that have left her a spastic quadriplegic who cannot see or hear and who relies on a feeding tube for nutrition.

She will never advance beyond “an early infantile level,” cannot suck or swallow and exhibits a high-pitched “neurological cry” that she suggests she’s in pain, according to court documents. Her brain injuries are so severe that she’ll suffer a premature death, state attorneys said.

The father, Kevin Peaslee, 22, is due to stand trial in October on charges of aggravated assault.

State child welfare officials believe the do-not-resuscitate order is appropriate, given the extent of the injuries to the girl.

Trask believes the do-not-resuscitate order amounts to a wrongful termination of her parental rights. She is fighting to make medical decisions for her daughter.

However, a state judge who gave child welfare officials authority to make medical decisions doesn’t put as much stock in the judgment of either parent and noted that the mother has visited her daughter “only a handful of times.”