Pro-life video of the day: Controversy over forced c-section
by Hans Johnson
In Britain there has been a growing uproar about the overreaching and secretive nature of Family Justice. One case making the headlines is that of a pregnant Italian woman who came to the country on a business trip in July of last year. The 35-year-old woman, who is bi-polar, had a panic attack in an airport hotel. She called police and was confined under the Mental Health Act.
Then Justice Mostyn in the Court of Protection issued an order “for the birth to be enforced by way of caesarean section.” The baby girl was born in August and was placed in state care.
Over the pleas to take the baby back to Italy, an adoption by a British couple is almost complete, despite findings in court last February that the mother has recovered.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/A30QhjR093Q[/youtube]
Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.
[HT: The Blaze]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Wait, so they are stealing her kid and adopting her out against her wishes? And she isn’t even a UK citizen? And they forced her to have a C-section? There needs to be more info on this, if someone is not of sound mind they can have procedures to sad their life or health performed without their consent, but what was the medical justification here?
This seems like another example of discrimination against the mentally ill. Italy should raise a stink and help her. They are stealing an Italian citizen, against the wishes of another Italian citizen. This makes me sick. Mentally ill people who take proper care of their illnesses are often capable of being good parents. Another country doesn’t have the right to steal children when the parent hasn’t even done anything wrong!
I am concerned that Britain would deem bi-polar as a state that does not allow for motherhood. As it is, good number of Americans are “undiagnosed bipolars.” Should we start taking babies away from them because some may have panic attacks? Ridiculous. I truly hope the Italian Consulate gets involved and this blows up for Britain…
God help this mother!!
I need more info!! :)
I agree with Jack. This does not sound right at ALL. How can a country – of which this woman isn’t even a CITIZEN! – forcibly remove and place her child for adoption?!?
It disgusts me how people, especially vulnerable people like those from foreign countries, the poor, and pregnant women, are discriminated against when they have a mental illness. I can’t even imagine a justification for stealing her kid and adopting an Italian citizen out to a UK couple.
At the very least, if there was a clear and present danger to the child from her mother, Italy should get a say what happens to the child. It doesn’t even sound, from the limited information available, is posing a danger to her child. And forced adoption isn’t necessary for many mentally ill parents. There are treatments and parenting classes and multiple options available to help people parent successfully without ripping a baby from her mother and giving it to some citizens of another country! Without more information this sounds like a blatant violation of human rights for mother and the baby.
Can you imagine if a wealthy woman from the US had this happen in the UK? I doubt we’d allow it.
I have a friend who is bipolar. Lithium causes severe birth defects, so she was taken off medication so she could have a child.
It was risky, because they could not predict how severe her symptoms would be. And there was also the risk that medication might not be effective again, after the child was born. But mostly, it was courageous of her to be willing to bear the symptoms in order to give life to her child.
Mercifully, her symptoms were quite mild and (as far as I know) she has not needed to go back onto medication. Her child is almost 13 years old. God is good.
But the woman in this story and her child were unjustly deprived of their human rights, by a foreign nanny state. And this is what many Americans want for our own families?
Just wait until someone blames this on pro-lifers. The UK has liberal abortions laws, and abortion is covered by the NHS, but I’m sure it will be pro-lifers fault somehow.
Apparently the baby was taken six weeks before the due date!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10494376/Caesarean-case-mother-was-six-weeks-off-due-date-when-baby-was-forcibly-removed.html
And the Italian government is finally getting involved,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10498682/Italian-government-to-step-into-Alessandra-Pacchieri-adoption-battle.html
There is a huge and unnecessary fear of people with mental disorders. First of all, these folks are not at all contagious. And our typical knee-jerk reaction of isolation of-the-offender is so egregious that it is counter productive. Typically these folks are far harder on themselves and only rarely is any aggression manifest to another (outside of close family, who they MAY see as extensions of themselves).
I agree – the report hyped on the “psychotic episodes” and “long history of mental illness” to make the woman’s condition seem really dire – while only once, I think,did they actually use the correct term for what she had: bipolar disorder. Many people have this and are able to manage it. Just a couple of days ago, in fact, I learned that Academy-award winning actor Richard Dreyfus has bipolar disorder. He wants to get the word out and educate people. Certainly this condition doesn’t have to be a bar to a successful life.
What happened here was an outrageous violation of human rights. Let’s hope it’s soon set straight!
I don’t care if this woman was a raving maniac, no one had the right to force her to have a C-section!
Do we start doing forced C sections on drug addicts and criminals as well?
Don’t they have mental health facilities in the UK, with its wonderful government run NHS, where this woman could have gotten help?
Anyone can have a panic attack. That doesn’t mean you’re mentally ill or that you’re not fit to parent. Some people only have one panic attack, others suffer them frequently. How on earth is stealing the baby from her mother’s womb going to help this woman’s mental health?
This whole story is just horrible to me. I can’t imagine how I would react if someone took my baby from me.
Could the perception of demographic / economic difficulties in the UK be the reason for grabbing this kid? Did money change hands in a adoption scheme?
If the mom had life threatening problems, the family of the mother should have had first chance for custody of the kid.
Pharmer thinks it was a crooked scam, and some child services official got paid under the table.
Where are the Italian gov’t and ambassador? This woman and her child are Italian citizens. Doesn’t she have a family and where are they in all of this?
Mary,
See the links in the post and my comment above.
The mother called the police on her own when she had the panic attack, and was arrested and “sectioned” – the British term for involuntary commitment. They spoke with her mosther in Italy, who told them she hadn’t been taking her meds. As Del said, she may well have been thinking of her child’s health over her own.
She thought returning home to her family would show the courts she was able to carry on wiith her life normally. Apparently they expected her to camp out at their door for a year and a half.
This is an outrageous breach of international soveignty.
Christopher Booker of The Independent broke this story, and his latest article shows not only that Del’s comment was right on, but that the case was “even more disturbing than it prevoously appeared”.
Read this, if your blood pressure can take it:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/10500854/Judge-must-unravel-saga-of-baby-snatched-from-womb.html
He’s a practicing Catholic, apparently.
Hans thanks for the links. I’m even more infuriated now. Being involuntarily committed and unable to make your own medical decisions does NOT mean you lose your civil rights. At least in the US it doesn’t. When I tried to commit suicide I kept refusing treatment and kept trying to rip out my IVs, and I was put on a 72 hour hold and wasn’t legally allowed to make my own medical decisions, but my rights were still respected. My wife was the one who was able to make decisions regarding my care, not some random social workers. And they weren’t allowed to do unnecessary medical procedures or forcibly medicate me, that’s illegal here. But they forcibly sedated her and gave her a premature c-section over a 1% chance of uterine rupture? What doctor would allow that? They should be used for malpractice. And I can get the rationale of putting her kid in foster care temporarily while she’s being treated, but to adopt a child against her mother’s wishes with no abuse or neglect or anything? Just one mental health event? And she’s not even a citizen of the country? I can’t remember the last time a story has made me so mad. I really hope Italy can help her, she should get her baby back, the doctors and social workers should be fired and sued, and Britain should pay her compensation.
I’m never going to get why people feel like it’s okay to treat the mentally ill like animals. Even if a mentally ill person is a danger to themselves or others (especially children) they still have the same civil rights as everyone else and deserve dignity and respect.
There’s more to the story than meets the eye. I do think that the decision was supposed to be referred to Italian courts and the end of story.
However, the mother was 39 weeks pregnant (not 34 like someone said), the C-section was advised by the doctors, because she has 2 previous C-sections and there was 1% risk of uterine rupture, and she was having a psychotic episode, not a panic attack. Psychosis a lot of times is a severe condition where the person is completely detached from reality and suffers from constant delusions and hallucinations. In that state they can’t really make any sounds decisions for themselves. The woman already has 2 children, but is unable to raise them herself and they are with her parents. The Social Services did contact her relatives in Italy, but they weren’t able to take another baby. There was an option of paternal grandmother in Senegal and another relative in the US that were considered.
But her rights HAVE been breached in a number of ways. First off – noone even ASKED her if she would like to attempt a natural delivery (whether she would have understood the question or not – isn’t known, but they should have at least asked, before proceeding with a forced ceserean plan). Secondly – she wasn’t deemed dangerous and the baby wasn’t in danger, so they should have been placed in a mother and baby unit while the decision about the future was made. Obviously – the whole case was supposed to be transferred to the Italian court. And if the woman is able to prove that her health condition is stable, she has a home, a job and the means of taking care of a baby – she should be given a chance and some support to make sure things are going well, not just taking the child away with an excuse of “Oh, but what if she stops her medication”.
On the other hand – Social Services DO have quotas to fill for adoption and a baby is much easier and quicker adopted than an older child….
Hi Vita,
Many good points.
Being her pregnancy was full term, couldn’t they have safely administered some kind of anti psychotic medication? We see women all the time, called VBACs, vaginal birth after cesarean, and we are just alerted that she is in the hospital and in labor. I’m not sure what number actually deliver normally.
Did she consent for this baby to be placed for adoption? How legal is any consent if the woman is in a psychotic episode? We can’t accept a consent for a non emergency procedure if a patient has a blood alcohol above the legal limit.
Again, where’s the Italian ambassador or government? If you are put in prison in a foreign country, you have a right to see the ambassador or his/her representative. This woman doesn’t have the same rights as someone who has committed a crime?