An American woman unable to move, speak, eat or drink – and, perhaps, to understand – is seeking visitation rights to her 3-year old triplets.

Abbie Dorn, 34, suffered brain damage from complications due to blood loss when a doctor nicked her uterus while she was giving birth to the children which were conceived after taking fertility drugs. A resulting malpractice lawsuit was settled for US$8 million, and the settlement now funds hours of daily therapy. The therapy costs her around US$33,000 per month.

Her parents, Susan and Paul Cohen, plan to press for her right to see her children in her parents’ home in South Carolina, where she now lives. The trial has been set for May 13. Her husband is raising the triplets in California, at the other end of the country. He has refused to allow them to visit their mother, arguing that the experience would be too traumatic. According to his attorney, Mr Dorn is concerned that his children will feel guilty if they were to see their mother, knowing that their births were the cause. He says he has no objection to the children visiting her when they are older.

The relationship between the Orthodox Jewish couple, or ex-couple, is complicated, to say the least. A year after the incident, Mr Dorn decided that the marriage was over. "I was 31 years of age, with three 1-year-olds, and I wanted to start rebuilding my life,” he told the Los Angeles Times. He divorced Abbie, but he is also seeking child support from her.

As in the famous Terri Schiavo case, the parents vehemently contend that their daughter can communicate, but Mr Dorn says that she is in a vegetative state. As the newspaper points out, the case raises many deep questions:

“The bitter dispute raises questions both legal and profoundly human. What is a parent? What constitutes a parent-child relationship? How do you show children that they are loved? And can Abbie Dorn ever be a mother to her children?”

There are no clear precedents. At a pre-trial hearing the judge described the case as the case "serious," "complicated" and "novel for me". On the one hand, the California Supreme Court ruled in 1979 that "A handicapped parent is a whole person to the child who needs his affection, sympathy and wisdom to deal with the problems of growing up." But in this case the handicap is so severe that Mr Dorn feels that his wife no longer exists as a parent. ~  Los Angeles Times, Apr 11