The Era of False Witness
The latest case in Boston is just one example.
Justina Pelletier is a young teenage girl with mitochondrial disease. The doctors at Tufts Medical Center diagnosed her with the condition a few years ago. They put her on a series of medications and vitamins, and her condition seemed to improve.
Back in February of 2013, Justina came down with a bad case of the flu. She was taken by ambulance to Boston Children’s Hospital. The folks at BCH did a work up on Justina and came to a conclusion that conflicts with the doctors at Tufts; they said that she doesn’t have a physical condition at all. They said that she has a psychological problem — in other words, it’s all in her head. It’s a psychosomatic issue. They recommended that her medication regimen should be “simplified” and that she should be treated for the mental problem that causes her to think she’s in pain.
Her parents disagreed. Strongly. They attempted to remove her from the hospital and take her back to her doctors at Tufts. But Boston Children’s Hospital would not tolerate such defiance. They refused to release her, called the cops, and accused the parents of “abusing” their child by “overmedicating” her.
Child Protective Services — or “the Department of Children and Families” — seized custody of Justina. She was locked in a psychiatric ward at the hospital, taken off most of her medications, and her parents were only allowed supervised visits once a week. A gag order was placed on her family, but her father has gone against it.
Good for him. I enthusiastically applaud any effort he makes to break the rules set by these kid-stealing crooks.
[…]Have Justina’s parents committed a crime? Have they been charged with child abuse? No. No, because taking one doctor’s advice over another is NOT child abuse. This is where we are in America, everyone. Are you paying attention? Are you as angry as you ought to be? You can have your children removed from your home EVEN IF YOU HAVEN’T COMMITTED A CRIME.
And we call this freedom? We call this a free country?
What a joke. You are not free. You are not free as long as government bureaucrats have the power to obliterate your parental rights simply because they personally don’t approve of the choices you’ve made.
This reminds me of a case in Sacramento last year. A 5-month-old baby was stolen right out of his mother’s arms because she had the audacity to check him out of the hospital, after deciding that she didn’t like the way they were treating her baby. The hospital called the cops, the cops showed up alongside some CPS officials, grabbed her baby and drove away. They wouldn’t tell her why; they wouldn’t even tell her where they were taking him.
“I’m going to grab your baby. Don’t resist and don’t fight me.” That’s what the police officer said to the helpless, scared mother, before prying her child from her arms.
Eventually, her son was returned to her. As far as I know, nobody was ever held responsible for this grave injustice.
Nobody ever is.
My comment: an editor I work with at Tor books, an acquaintance of mine of many years, had his child taken away by Child Protective Services, based on nothing more than a false report by an angry neighbor, who claimed the child –get this — was being starved to death. The cops showed up on his doorstep at night, while he was hosting a party, showed no warrant, took the child away.
Do you think you live in a free country? You live in the Age of Titus Oates.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
