Personal Injury Law

Court Finds Child Neglect Where Parents Refuse to Consent to Life-Saving Surgery “because it stops the heart.”

Matter of Eli H. v. Barbara H., nn-01297-08, decided on November 28, 2008 by Judge Barbara R. Potter of St. Lawrence County Family Court, required the court  to balance the religious beliefs of “loving, caring parents” of an infant born on April 1, 2007 with life-threatening congenital heart defects with the court’s duty as “parens patriae” to ensure the infant’s health and safety.  The heart defects were initially treated by the surgical insertion of a shunt between his aorta and his pulmonary artery to increase the blood flow to his lungs. Due to the infant’s growing body, the shunt became too small, requiring that it be replaced and that the hole in his heart that he was born with be repaired in order to prevent him from dying early in childhood.  The infant’s parents refused to consent to the surgery.  Thus petitions were filed by the St. Lawrence County Department of Social Services alleging that the infant is a neglected child pursuant to Family Court Act §1012.

Full post as published by Legal Blog on January 13, 2009 (boomark / email).