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Law Review: The marginalization of Jehovah?s Witnesses in Canadian child custody cases

By Alliance Alert

Dr. S. Magnet and Heather Ann Hillsburg, Protecting Children?s 'Best Interests': Mature Minors, Faith and Canadian Jurisprudence (April 13, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1589208 "Jehovah?s Witnesses are consistently marginalized within the Canadian legal system. This discrimination is particularly noticeable in cases involving children such as child custody battles, as well as in the language used at law to describe the Witness religion. Children are characterized at law as 'choosing' mainstream religion, whereas Witness elders ?coerce?, ?force? or ?inculcate? children into a religion that will ultimately harm them. The biases within this language played a key role in the 2009 A.C. v. Manitoba decision. In this case, the court rules that a 15 year-old girl suffering from Crohn?s disease was ordered to undergo a blood transfusion against her will. The court grounded its decision in sections 25(8) and 25(9) of the Canadian child and family services act, stipulating that a child could be subjected to medial treatment that doctors deemed to be in their 'best interests', and that a child under the age of 16, unless deemed to be a mature minor by psychiatrists, could not make their own medical decisions. While psychiatrists decided that A.C. was a mature minor, the court overruled these findings. A.C. challenged the decision on the grounds that sections 25(8) and 25(9) of the Child and Family Services were arbitrary and discriminatory, but was ultimately forced to undergo a blood transfusion."

Full post as published by Constitutionally Correct on June 01, 2010 (boomark / email).