Fox News reports on a disturbing custody battle in Maine between a young mother and the teapot tyrants at the state’s Department of Health and Human Services:
Aleah [Peaslee] was 6 months old when prosecutors say she was permanently blinded and suffered brain damage after being shaken by her father, Kevin Peaslee, on Dec. 21 in an apartment in Augusta, Maine. Peaslee, of Windsor, later pleaded not guilty to aggravated assault after being indicted by a Kennebec County grand jury.
The girl, who suffered multifocal seizures during the incident, went into a “deep coma,” but attempts were made within days to remove her from a ventilator. Doctors then informed Aleah’s mother that she was “neurologically devastated” and would not recover, prompting the girl’s parents to agree to a “do not resuscitate” (DNR) order, according to court documents.
But the girl’s condition improved after she was placed in her mother’s arms to die, eventually recovering to breathe on her own. Within days, the girl’s parents sought to cancel the DNR order, but medical providers refused, citing her still-grave condition. The Maine Department of Health and Human Development took immediate custody of the baby due to the fact she allegedly had been abused by a parent.
Aleah’s teenage mother, Virginia Trask, is now in a legal battle with the state, supported by the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, and other legal advocacy groups. She also has the backing of Maine governor Paul LePage, who says the law under which DHHS is acting “violates the sanctity of parental rights.” But a district court ruled earlier this year in favor of DHHS, and the case is now before a state appellate court. Arguments are scheduled for September 23. In the meantime, Aleah remains in the state’s custody.
Trask’s attorney, David Crocker, contends that the state did not formally terminate parental rights, thereby depriving Trask of due process and leaving Aleah in legal limbo. But, more to the point, there is no evidence that Trask should not be allowed custody of her child. The State usurped her parental rights because it did not approve of her decision.
That is, Trask’s legal advocates concur, a gross violation of “fundamental rights,” as ADF’s amicus brief declares: “the right to live, and the right to parent.” The State has, in fact, set in motion “a cascading series of events that would inevitably lead to [Aleah’s] death,” reads the appellant’s brief. If the State is allowed to carry out the “do not resuscitate” order, Aleah’s right to life and her mother’s right to parent will be violated irrevocably.
DHHS commissioner Mary Mayhew says that even “if the higher court upholds the previous decision that a parent’s rights can be overridden by the Department, this administration will not exercise that misplaced authority.” That is some small consolation. But the astonishing willingness of faceless bureaucrats to breach human and legal rights — that is a problem that will not be solved by a court ruling.