Religious Challenge Newborn Blood Test Laws
WAHOO, Neb. - Ray and Louise Spiering wanted to observe a phase of silence after their daughter Melynda’s birth, but what they got was uproar.To the Spierings, Nebraska’s condition that newborn babies undergo blood screening within 48 hours of birth is a contravention on their religious beliefs and their right to make a decision what’s best for their four children.
The couples attend a fundamental Christian church and go after some teachings of the Church of Scientology. Louise Spiering said they wanted “that balance of our beliefs included into the births of our children.”
It’s taken them and another set of parents to the Nebraska Supreme Court and the Legislature in a force to construct the newborn screening law more flexible.
The mandatory test, in which a small number of drops of blood are drawn from a baby’s heel, screens for dozens of rare congenital diseases, some of which can cause severe mental retardation or death if left unobserved.
Screening may disclose serious defects
Many of the diseases covered in the bill are deficiencies, and one, phenylketonuria, can effect in severe mental retardation without diet restrictions starting at birth.
One in every 837 babies born last year tested positive for one of the 34 diseases the state tests for, said Julie Miller, manager of Nebraska’s Newborn Screening Program. But the incidence is much minor for the eight most serious diseases, with one in 112,000 having biotinidase deficiency, which can cause developmental stoppages.
The Spierings say changing the law will give parents improved options, whatever their opposition to the tests.
“We just want to lay the groundwork so that other parents have better options than we did,” Ray Spiering said. “We weren’t so much against the test. We just wanted a short delay. In a sense, we kind of won when the judge decided the eight-day delay.
But, Louise Spiering said: “There was a very steep cost in terms of the intrusion on our private lives.”
AP
The couples attend a fundamental Christian church and go after some teachings of the Church of Scientology. Louise Spiering said they wanted “that balance of our beliefs included into the births of our children.”
It’s taken them and another set of parents to the Nebraska Supreme Court and the Legislature in a force to construct the newborn screening law more flexible.
The mandatory test, in which a small number of drops of blood are drawn from a baby’s heel, screens for dozens of rare congenital diseases, some of which can cause severe mental retardation or death if left unobserved.
Screening may disclose serious defects
Many of the diseases covered in the bill are deficiencies, and one, phenylketonuria, can effect in severe mental retardation without diet restrictions starting at birth.
One in every 837 babies born last year tested positive for one of the 34 diseases the state tests for, said Julie Miller, manager of Nebraska’s Newborn Screening Program. But the incidence is much minor for the eight most serious diseases, with one in 112,000 having biotinidase deficiency, which can cause developmental stoppages.
The Spierings say changing the law will give parents improved options, whatever their opposition to the tests.
“We just want to lay the groundwork so that other parents have better options than we did,” Ray Spiering said. “We weren’t so much against the test. We just wanted a short delay. In a sense, we kind of won when the judge decided the eight-day delay.
But, Louise Spiering said: “There was a very steep cost in terms of the intrusion on our private lives.”
AP
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