The following is an article by Mat Staver, the Founder and
Chairman of Liberty Counsel, and representative of the Pelletier family. If you'd like to see the original article, you can
visit www.TheBlaze.com (the link will take you directly to
the article). This helps describe the injustices that have been done to
Justina and her family.
The story of 15-year-old Justina Pelletier captured the
hearts of many Americans as the horrible story of the young girl’s plight over
the past 13 months was brought to light by the media.
Following the advice Dr. Mark Korson, Justina’s treating
physician at Tufts Medical Center, Lou and Linda Pelletier took their daughter
to the ER at Boston Children’s Hospital. But there, a new doctor, seven months
out of medical school, disagreed with her treating physicians and changed
Justina’s diagnosis to a mental rather than a physical condition.
When the parents refused to sign a new treatment plan that
would preclude them from seeking a second opinion, the hospital called in the
Massachusetts Department of Children & Families (DCF) and prevented the
parents from discharging their daughter and taking her back to Tufts Medical
Center. For the past 13 months DCF has taken custody of Justina, making her a
ward of the state and, thus, eligible for research by the Boston teaching
hospital.
DCF also obtained a gag order preventing the parents from
speaking to the media. Watching their daughter’s health decline and with no
progress on the case, Lou spoke to the media. DCF then sought to hold the
father in contempt of court. That is when Liberty
Counsel came to the aid of Justina and her family.
Within four days after Liberty Counsel joined the case, DCF began
to backpedal. Yesterday the court approved an agreement to (1) drop the
contempt charges against Lou Pelletier for speaking to the media, (2) dissolve
the gag order, and (3) transfer Justina’s medical care to Tufts Medical Center
where Dr. Korson, a specialist, had been treating her for mitochondrial
disease.
But DCF is still holding Justina as a ward of the state.
This is the same DCF that has lost
134 children in the agency’s custody. The children of 134 parents are
missing, and DCF has no idea where they are located.
As more of the details of this case come to light, people
are becoming increasingly outraged. It is unfathomable that this barbaric
overreach by a state agency is taking place in America – and in the city that
launched the fight for American liberty, of all places.
As a Massachusetts ward of the state, Justina has been
refused access to education. She is denied visitation by clergy, with no
allowance for religious observances, including Easter and Christmas.
Her sisters have rarely been able to see her, and her
92-year-old grandparents have not seen her for 13 months. Justina’s parents
were only allowed weekly visits for one hour – and that under extreme
supervision, including a Massachusetts State Trooper. DCF prevented the parents
from even having a cell phone to photograph their daughter.
Under Massachusetts law, prison inmates get up to five
visits per week, medical care, and education rights. DCF has granted Justina
one visit per week, little medical care, and no education, even though she is
just 15 years of age.
Justina Pelletier has been treated far worse than an
incarcerated felon by the state of Massachusetts!
Plus, unknown to many people, Boston Children’s Hospital is
a chartered teaching hospital and is allowed to conduct medical research and
experimentation on children who are declared wards of the state. According to
Boston’s Children Hospital’s “Clinical
and Investigation Policy and Procedure Manual“: “Children who are
wards of the state may be included in research that presents minimal risk… or
greater than minimal risk with a prospect of direct benefit.”
Justina’s abuse as a DCF ward is unfathomable. No
15-year-old should be forced to live under such conditions!
In January 2013, before she was admitted to the Emergency
Room at Boston’s Children Hospital, Justina was involved in ice-skating
competitions and was in a private school under an Individualized Education Plan
(IEP) that was sensitive to her learning disability.
As a ward, Justina’s deficient medical care has left her
extremely weak and confined to a wheelchair. Being refused education, she is
now two years behind her classmates.
After learning of the Pelletier’s plight and performing our
own background investigation of the case, I flew to Boston to represent the
family in court against the contempt charges directed at Lou Pelletier for
allegedly breaking a court-ordered gag order.
The media scrutiny and legal proceedings have caused DCF to
reconsider their course of action and begin to back away from the abusively
hard-core stance it has taken on this matter. But make no mistake, DCF must be
held accountable!
More than a dozen Massachusetts state legislators blasted
the Department of Children and Families for “breaking up” the Pelletier family
and decried the ill-advised imprisonment of Justina Pelletier. They are now
calling for the House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight to launch a full-scale
investigation into DCF’s handling of the case.
The idea of a medical facility removing a child from a
loving family – a family in which there is no history or evidence of abuse of
any kind – is a chilling thought.
This poor girl and her family have been through hell. DCF
should be held accountable for this flagrant violation of its authority and
abuse of government power.
