New Zealand: Court Takes Custody Of Baby Whose Parents Refused 'Vaccinated Blood' For Surgery
The 6-month-old baby has a congenital heart defect and requires surgery to survive. The baby's parents asked that he only receive blood from donors who had not been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The High Court of New Zealand took custody of a newborn on Wednesday after his parents insisted that he only receive blood from donors who had not been vaccinated against the coronavirus, a demand that the court said prohibited physicians from performing life-saving surgery, The Washington Post reported citing the court's order.
According to the court order, the 6-month-old baby, referred to as "Baby W" in court records, has a congenital cardiac abnormality and requires surgery to survive.
“He remains in urgent need of an operation, and every day that the operation is delayed his heart is under strain,” the order said, citing one of the doctors.
Cole Reeves and Samantha Savage, Baby W's parents, had asked that the blood used in the surgery come from uninfected donors. Doctors stated that utilising blood donated outside of the normal channels was "impractical" for the situation and that doing the surgery without donated blood was "not an option."
As time ran short and the parents continued to resist, Judge Ian Gault determined that it was "in Baby W's best interests" for the court to temporarily take possession of him until the surgery could be performed.
Baby W was placed under the guardianship of the court on Wednesday and will remain there until he recovers from surgery, no later than the end of January. The surgery, which is scheduled for this week, is expected to last 48 hours.
Baby W's legal representatives for consenting to surgery were two doctors, and Reeves and Savage were chosen as his representatives for "all other purposes." Doctors indicated they would "respect the parents' ideas" whenever possible, as long as it didn't jeopardise "Baby W's interests."
According to the order, the judgement came after a difficult period of several weeks filled with unfounded charges.
Reeves and Savage said on Infowars, the podcast hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who filed for bankruptcy on Friday after being held accountable for misinformation he spread about the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn, according to the Washington Post.
“It’s so much bigger than us. It’s so much bigger than the baby. God does not want this to be perpetrated on mankind. He doesn’t want this to be perpetrated on the baby,” Reeves said as a baby babbled in the background.
Coronavirus vaccines, especially those based on mRNA technology, have been repeatedly demonstrated to be safe and effective methods for combating severe covid-19 illness.
(With Inputs From Agencies)
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