Boston Children’s Hospital Psychiatric Unit and Justina Pelletier’s 13 month incarceration
The international mental health watchdog organization, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, is calling on Massachusetts State Attorney General to investigate Boston Children’s Hospital Psychiatric Unit in the case of Justina Pelletier’s 13 month incarceration.
For thirteen months, Lou and Linda Pelletier’s youngest daughter, Justina, has been a prisoner at the hands of Boston Children’s Hospital Psychiatric Unit accused of suffering from an obscure “mental disorder,” Somatoform, which a leading psychologist describes as being “nothing more than a destructive and unreliably applied label.” In deteriorating health, and confined to a wheelchair, the 15-year-old learned this week that there will be no pardon from the Massachusetts Psychiatric Puritans.
After months of fighting for the teenager’s freedom, on March 25, the Pelletiers were summarily dismissed by the state’s inquisitors—the Juvenile Court—and denied custody of their ailing daughter. Juvenile Court Judge, Joseph Johnson’s reason for denying the Pelletier’s right to decide their daughter’s medical treatment was his belief that the Pelletiers will not “comply” with the state’s directives.