After 16 months in state custody in a case that sparked national debate, teen Justina Pelletier is returning to her family. “I’m so happy. I’m so excited, oh, my gosh,” Justina told the Boston Globe. In his court order, Judge Joseph Johnston reasoned that her parents have sufficient supports in place. “Services have included individual therapy for Justina several times per week, family therapy, medical care, recreational activity, occupational therapy, and physical therapy,” Johnston wrote. The Hartford Courant reports that Justina’s father plans to pursue legal action against the Massachusetts officials who took custody of Justina. “This is just the beginning,” Pelletier said.
Justina Pelletier Leaves Facility For Family Home In West Hartford (Hartford Courant, June 18, 2014)
Justina Pelletier heads home after judge ends state custody (Boston Globe, June 18, 2014)
The court order that returns custody of Justina Pelletier to her parents (Boston Globe, June 18, 2014)
I want to thank Mad In America for bringing this case to my attention. It has been a 6 month roller coaster but one that has helped bring attention to the abuses psychiatry perpetrates against innocent people on a regular basis nationwide. Hopefully, in addition to the greater awareness, some legal change will come out of it.
The only thing regrettable of the affair is that Justina had to endure a 17 month ordeal -time during which she was told that all her physical problems were in “her head”- to have the psychiatric quacks at Boston Children’s Hospital defeated.
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Just think — if we had an organized resistance moovement we could join this case as an amicus and ride FOX News’ coattails to bring the real issues surrounding psychiatric oppression to the public, then take the issue away from the fundamentalist right. And we could also offer Justina whatever support she needs on a personal level, if she wants us to.
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“take the issue away from the fundamentalist right. ”
NO, right , left, middle, top and bottom… everyone needs board when it comes to fighting psychiatric oppression.
None of this left vs right so nothing ever happens non sense.
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Don’t want to get too controversial & distract from what is & should be a celebratory moment. And I agree that in theory we all should be united against psychiatry. But last I looked the case was in the hands of some sketchy characters who were & I’m sure still are salivating to keep their little neo-fascist paws all over this and exploit Justina for all she’s worth. And I blame the progressive left and their obliviousness to these issues for leaving a vacuum to be filled by these people. So if it makes you feel any better I have criticism round the board here.
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This is happy news !!! I am really surprised, especially to read that she is totally system free. Much happiness, Justina !!!
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Great news…hopefully the Pelletiers will sue so this case can remain in the public spotlight.
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This never should have happened in the first place 🙁
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This is great news!
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And all of you Americans think you live in a free country? Think again!
There is a young person that was being held captive in Massachusetts who was not allowed to participate in religious ceremonies, or visit family without government agents watching. No, it’s not the accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. It’s 15-year-old mitochondrial disease patient and non-terrorist Justina Pelletier. U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole Jr. ruled Wednesday that the now-20-year-old charged with four deaths and injuring of more than 260 people should be able to see his sisters without an FBI agent present.
“Can you believe it?” That was Jennifer Pelletier’s response when she was told about the ruling. She’s Justina’s older sister — and every visit she has with her wheelchair-bound sister is held under the watchful eye of agents from both the state’s Department of Children and Families and — since the story went national — armed state police! The family is only allowed one visit a week, for one hour a week, with their own sick daughter. “It’s hard for me to say this,” Justina’s father Lou told me Wednesday, “but a terrorist is getting better treatment in Massachusetts right now than a sick teenager who’s done nothing wrong.” And that’s the source of rage among Justina’s supporters. She’s the one who’s suffering and all she did was come down with an illness.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick had the executive power to pardon convicted criminals with the stroke of a pen, yet ignored the plight of an innocent, sick adolescent in state care. It’s a dereliction of duty that Governor Patrick did not take action to free Justina into the loving arms of her family,” commented Rev. Patrick Mahoney a spokesperson for the Pelletier Family. It is tragic that every young person in the Wayside Youth Facility was able to spend time with their family and celebrate Easter except one. That is Justina Pelletier. It appears that the DCF was punishing Justina and the Pelletier family rather than trying to reunite them, which is their stated purpose.
How does this horrible Dr. Eli Newberger, have such enormous
and unchecked power? This Juvenile Court Judge Joseph Johnson is even worse, he should be thrown off the bench. Unless a local media source picks up the story, or it happens to someone you know, most Americans are totally unaware that this is happening quite frequently in the United States.
Medical tyranny is sadly a reality today in the U.S., and if you disagree with a medical professional over the care of your child, you face losing custody of your child. Justina’s case is especially bizarre, because the parents were actually following a treatment plan for her that was recommended by doctors in their home town. Their only “crime” was to disagree with the doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital and want to discharge her and take her back to her original doctors.
Boston Children’s Hospital is part of the Harvard Medical School system, with strong ties to funding from the federal government. Boston Children’s Hospital “is home to the world’s largest research enterprise based at a pediatric hospital. More than 1,100 scientists, including nine members of the National Academy of Sciences, 11 on-staff members of the Institute of Medicine and 9 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.”
It is obvious that Justina is part of a medical research trial? There is the story of Sarah Hershberger in 2013, the 10-year-old Amish girl who fled the U.S. with her parents to avoid forced chemotherapy treatments. A court had awarded custody of Sarah to a nurse at Akron Children’s Hospital. Her parents claim that their daughter was part of an experimental chemo drug trial, to which they had not given consent.
By the way folks, why isn’t this news story on the main stream media (CBS, NBS, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, etc)? I can guess why? A bill in the Massachusetts Legislature which would have overruled the judge and freed Justina immediately, HD 4212, written by MassResistance and filed on April 4, was blocked by the Democratic leadership in the House, despite national outrage and a flood of calls and emails from across the country. I thought the Democratic Party was for the people? Apparently not!
The DCF has now moved Justina to a hospital in Connecticutt instead of with her parents! 16 months this has been going on!
Remember folks, never put your child in a Massachusetts hospital. Never!
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A bill in the Massachusetts Legislature which would have overruled the judge and freed Justina immediately, HD 4212, written by MassResistance and filed on April 4, was blocked by the Democratic leadership in the House, despite national outrage and a flood of calls and emails from across the country.
Any “proud liberals” care to address this? Who in the Democratic so-called leadership participated in this denial of justice?
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It’s good news but the better news yet were that all the responsible people were fired and tried for what they did. Instead the Pelletiers now have to comply with family therapy and other such bullshit (presumably because Justina can be taken away again). It’s disgusting.
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