The case of a Rarámuri woman who has refused blood transfusions for her leukemia-stricken daughter on religious grounds has gone to the highest court in the nation.

The five-year-old’s mother, a Jehovah’s Witness, refused a transfusion after the child’s health deteriorated but the Chihuahua family services agency (DIF) overruled her decision.

The state’s deputy prosecutor for the protection of children granted provisional guardianship of the child to the DIF for decisions involving medical treatment.

But a federal judge granted the mother an amparo, or injunction, against the decision of the prosecutor, ruling that the child should receive a transfusion only after all alternative medical treatments have been tried.

The judge also decided that the guardianship granted to the DIF was discriminatory, arbitrary and denigrating to the minor’s parents.

The child’s mother has now taken the case to the Supreme Court of Justice where a judge will determine the validity of the federal judge’s amparo.

The Rarámuri woman has charged that in overruling her to make medical decisions on behalf of her child, she has been discriminated against on grounds of her ethnic origin and religious beliefs.

Source: El Universal (sp)