This is a complicated situation that needs to be defused. I stand 100% behind Diego and his family.
The only people that know all the medical facts in this case are the doctors and they have not come forward with these facts when at the end of the day these will come out. I believe medically they are withholding information that would hurt their position
Over forty years ago Federal Agencies including the military started what have been called Family Advocacy Programs (FAP) Committees were formed and non-family members in the workplace were assigned duties and were called Family Advocacy Representatives (FAR). They would meet and discuss child rearing techniques and issues that should have been under the purview of mothers and fathers. States developed these programs, and, in most states, these are under the Departments of Health and Welfare (DHW) and as a condition for Federal Funding these programs must be in existence and up and running to receive funds. The medical profession has been complacent in this process.
Child protection agencies in most cases receive funding and are under the command structure of the (DHW) in their states.
The problems in this case as in many cases like this—and they happen every day, are that the medical professionals and the patients are operating under different moral predicates. The doctors perceive that their authority comes from government fiats. The patients like Diego’s family believe the moral authority for families comes from God. This is a clash of values that we see throughout society. This would not have happened forty years ago when hospitals were run by Christian people—many of them Catholic Sisters. The respect for the family and family values would have been the basis for any moral or medical decision.
I am a strong supporter of the police. But the police who executed the warrant to take baby Cyrus away from his mother were not trained for the situation that they were confronted with. It was not a place for police. The mother’s interaction with the police reflected respect and deference to authority that should be respected and used as an example. I would not have been able to contain myself.
The first thing that needs to be done is to put this family back together. The mother needs to be with the baby—period. For love and for nourishment. The mother should have unfettered access to her baby.
Charles Murray says that the family is the only place where the “stuff of life” can happen. When the medical profession and government through Child Protection Services usurp the power and the authority of a family the implications are extremely dangerous.
When a faith in God and a Christian moral predicate are no longer a part of the health care transaction between doctor and patient and when there is no longer a Covenant relationship when we carry on with the many activities of our everyday lives, the grease that lubricates the wheels of life will no longer turn.
I stand by baby Cyrus and Diego’s family.
J. M. J. John Livingston MD FACS
