Mercy Murdering

Oops, guess we shouldn't have tried to kill her:

Haleigh Poutre, the brain-damaged girl at the center of a passionate end-of-life debate, was transferred yesterday from a pediatric intensive-care unit to a Brighton rehabilitation center, two days after the state's top child-protection official saw her pick up a Curious George stuffed animal and a yellow duck on command. . . .

The week before the SJC ruled on Jan. 17 that life support could be removed, DSS ordered a new round of tests on Haleigh after her biological mother visited and described the girl as being responsive. Based on the new tests, doctors told DSS officials that there was ''not a chance" of recovery, Spence said.

But a day after the high court's ruling, doctors told DSS that they had noticed significant improvements in Haleigh, saying, in effect, ''Oops, we're seeing something," Spence said. Haleigh was off the ventilator and had begun to show increasing responsiveness.

Link.