Baby Elijah UPDATE: Where’s the Line?

On Wednesday, November 22nd, after the parents refused vaccination for the baby, the state became involved and took this beautiful newborn, Elijah, from his loving parents, claiming the mother to be unfit due to a diagnosis of cerebral palsy (a non progressive movement disorder). 

They are keeping everything close to the vest, per attorney instruction. I’m actually going to be at the hearing on Fri. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone and hopefully hearing that the court decides to reunite this family.

I’m sure that we don’t know everything. We do know that she is disabled. This would require accommodation and assistance. Didn’t they have plenty of time to work through that during the pregnancy? They couldn’t have figured out accommodations and assistance where needed? I’m sure, since this didn’t take place, hospital staff had concerns when they saw a disabled mother struggling to care for her son. Wouldn’t that have been the perfect time to bring in help, maybe someone that has experience with parents that have cerebral palsy. Hospitals do have such people, I checked.

There is no indication of drug abuse or criminal activity of any kind. I get asked this question a lot.

The mother lives with the father and the baby’s grandfather. She has plenty of hands to help her but family doesn’t count. As if anyone hired would would deliver the same kind of attentive care as a loved one.

One of the reasons that I was drawn to this case is that on top of having 2 capable adults she has a church family that is very close. I heard from folks that knew people that went to school with her and knew her for years. By all accounts they didn’t think she was a harm to the baby and would be happy to help if needed. It sounds like she is beloved and the community supports her tremendously. This is not something I believe the state should intervene with as this kind of devotion comes from love NOT tax payer dollars.

I would like to remind you that parental rights are GRANTED to us by neither the hospital nor the state. These are our God given rights with which you should not interfere. If a government department is given the absurd right to determine that a mother is not fit because she has an illness, where would you stop asserting that control? What if the parent is blind? What if the parent has cancer? What if the parent breaks an arm in a car crash? Would they deem these scenarios appropriate to remove ones own child from a loving home? I’m sure that you see the slippery slope that this can become when an entity determines that it can dictate the appropriate physical condition of a parent.

We also know that the entire tone of hospital staff changed the minute that the parents made it clear that they were not going to vaccinate baby Elijah. CPS arrived shortly after.

I hope that helps to bring understanding. I’m sure that more facts will come out as they move through the case. Given that our human and parental rights come from God, we should exhaust all possible remedies before even considering taking a child from his own parents. From my observations and discussions, that did not happen here.   ~Miste