New Zealand’s health service has filed a lawsuit in court over custody of a four-month-old baby whose parents would not allow life-saving heart surgery if unvaccinated blood was not used.
The baby’s parents discussed their son’s health and medical preferences in an interview with an anti-vaccine campaigner.
In the interview, the parents said their baby had severe pulmonary valve stenosis and needed surgery “almost immediately”, but said they were “overly concerned with blood.” [the doctors] they will use”.
“We don’t want vaccine-stained blood,” said the father. “That’s the end of the deal – anything these doctors want to do is okay.”
Vaccines to prevent serious illness and death from Covid-19 have been found to be extremely safe and effective, with millions of people vaccinated worldwide.
According to the blood service, New Zealand BloodAny Covid-19 vaccine in the blood is broken down soon after injection.
Dr Mike Shepherd, interim director of Auckland’s health service Te Whatu Ora, said in a statement that he knew it could be worrisome for parents who have a sick child and make decisions about their care.
Te Whatu Ora filed suit in Auckland high court under the Child Care Act on Monday. She has requested that custody of the baby be taken from her parents so that the donated blood can be allowed to be used, the NZ Herald reported.
“The decision to apply to the court is always made with the best interests of the child in mind and after extensive discussions with the whānau,” Shepherd said.
“As this matter is in court, we will not comment further.”
A 100-strong anti-vaccine group gathered outside the building on Wednesday as the parties went to court to set a date for an emergency hearing.
Te Whatu Ora’s lawyer, Paul White, told the court that medical professionals had said that a child with such a condition should normally be treated a few weeks earlier; Sue Gray, a lawyer for parents, another leading anti-vaccine campaigner, said parents want better care than the state offers.
“Because they label my clients as conspiracy theorists, [their position] “Anything my clients say can be ignored,” he said.
New Zealand Blood He said: “All donated blood is also filtered during processing, so trace amounts that may still be present do not pose any risk to recipients.
We do not separate or label blood based on the donor’s Covid-19 vaccine status.” He added that there was no evidence that previous vaccination had affected blood quality for transfusion.
Josephine Johnston, a lecturer in bioethics at the University of Otago, said: RNZ It was rare for a case to go this far. He added that it was a sad state of affairs for everyone involved, as there was a significant disagreement between parents and medical teams, both of whom were trying to act in the best interests of the child.
“Parents have a lot of decision-making power over their child’s life—parents have a great deal of discretion in making decisions, including medical matters,” Johnston said.
“But that too has its limits, and this is one of those tragic cases where the border has life-or-death consequences.”
