NEWS RELEASE
After appearing on CNN Sunday Night this past weekend, Peter H. Johnston, President of Texas Center for Family Rights, took the State of Texas to task today in the child custody case of 12-year-old Katie Wernecke, who was removed from her home by Children’s Protective Service agents to ensure that the child received specific cancer treatment.
"The state of Texas has no right to take this young girl away from her parents, especially at this critical time in her life. Her parents are doing their best to get their daughter the best medical treatment they can afford, but, as usual, the state knows a lot more about being a parent than a child’s real parents, Johnston said.
"It is a well publicized fact that stress is a major factor in the survival rate of cancer victims. Most doctors, nowadays, are doing everything in their power to reduce the stress levels in their cancer patients."
Darrell Azar, representing Children’s Protective Services, explained in that CNN interview that the court had granted custody of the child in order to ensure that she received the best medical treatment available.
Johnston remarked later, "Is CPS down to dictating which doctors and hospitals parents are required to take their children to now? Every year this agency takes hundreds of healthy children away from hard working parents under the guise of false statements made by disgruntled neighbors or jealous relatives and places them in homes where their physical safety and mental wellbeing are at serious risk. Are we now going to let them (CPS) start taking our children when they need the love and affection of their parents more than any other time in their lives?
"Is it the state’s job to punish this young girl for being sick? Are her parents criminals because their daughter has cancer? If CPS wanted to ensure that the Werneckes got the kind of care their daughter needed, then why didn’t the court issue the family an order requiring them to take her to a specific doctor at a specific hospital for specific treatment? Why forcibly remove the child from her mother’s arms? This is not the state’s job, but CPS agents obviously think it is."
"Mrs. Wernecke wanted to give her daughter her own blood (both have O positive) because she was concerned about her child’s safety. How many people today are suffering from AIDS or Hepatitis C because of tainted blood transfusions 15 years ago. Any blood specialist today will tell you that there are likely hundreds of communicable diseases that are as yet undiscovered, which is why they require health workers to wear gloves and protective clothing even when their patients are reportedly healthy. Is it a crime for a mother to want to protect her own child from those same diseases? CPS obviously thinks so.
Johnston concluded, "It’s time for CPS to recognize what the U.S. Supreme Court unequivocally asserts, ‘Children are not the mere creatures of the state.’"
