Uh oh. Here we go again.

In case you were going through Terri Schiavo withdrawals, here's another "right to die/live" case coming out of Boston's supreme court.

Jason Strickland, 31, beat his 11-year-old stepdaughter, Haleigh Poture, so badly that she is now in a permanent vegetative state. Her brain was "found partly sheared when she was hospitalized on September 11. Her body was covered with burns, cuts and bruises and her teeth were broken."

Understandably, Strickland does not want his stepdaughter taken off life support, because he'll face a murder charge once she "dies." (Why they haven't thrown this guy in jail already is beyond me. Or maybe they have. The article doesn't say.)

A juvenile court in Massachussetts has already declared that the Department of Social Services has the authority to disconnect Haleigh from her breathing machines and feeding tubes.

Where's the mother in all this, you ask?

Haleigh's birth mother, 29-year-old Allison Avrett, lost custody of the girl when she was four years old because of allegations of abuse, said the Department of Social Services, whose lawyers have consulted Avrett in the case. Avrett has said she would prefer the removal of Haleigh's life support system.

Oh, and by the way, Strickland's wife (and Haleigh's maternal aunt and sole legal guardian) was found shot to death with Haleigh's grandmother "in an apparent murder suicide" at her home on Sept. 22. The previous day, police had accused this woman of beating Haleigh with a baseball bat.

Get ready. If this is anything like the Schiavo case, it's gonna get ugly. And don't think Santa and the holidays won't get brought into this. Let the little girl rest in peace, for Jah's sake. She's put up with enough dysfunction in her short lifetime.