Parents refuse to give daughter Covid shot so she can have kidney transplant

A Michigan mother says the hospital’s requirement to get vaccinated before an organ transplant violate her civil rights

Alisa Campau (front) with her family. The Michigan family of the 17-year-old girl has sued the hospital that is denying Alisa placement on the kidney transplant list until she receives up to date vaccinations, as is required by the hospital’s policy (Provided by Campau family/Global Newswire)

A mother of a young teen in Michigan requiring a kidney transplant is suing a children’s hospital over its Covid-19 policy, which requires any child seeking an organ transplant to receive the vaccines before going under the knife.

The adoptive parents of the Ukrainian teen, 17, filed a complaint with the US District Court for the Western District of Michigan on Friday, according toThe Detroit News.

In the complaint, Jenna Campau, the 17-year-old’s mother, claims that the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital policy that requires her child be vaccinated before undergoing surgery for a kidney transplant is a violation of her religious beliefs, as, she argues, the vaccines were based on research done in the early 1980s on aborted foetal cells.

The 17-year-old, identified as A.C. in the court documents, was adopted by Ms Campau in 2021 from Ukraine. She arrived to the US in 2021 suffering from chronic kidney disease and only had one kidney, thus prompting the child’s parents to seek out dialysis care for her at the children’s hospital they’re now suing in Grand Rapids.

In addition to the injunction on the hospital’s requirement for Covid-19 vaccination, the family is also seeking a declaratory ruling that the institution’s refusal to provide the girl with an exemption is a violation of her state and federal civil rights.

“Any vaccine or medical product that is produced or researched using aborted foetal cells and also genetic modifications or therapies that involve combing (sic) human and cells or DNA,” are not in line with the mother and father’s religious beliefs, the lawsuit states, and are therefore, they argue, a trampling of their civil rights.

“Additionally, they oppose, under the religious laws established in the Book of Leviticus, vaccines that contain products from various animals it lists as ‘unclean,’” the lawsuit reads.

Doctors at the DeVos hospital have determined that the teen requires a kidney transplant, but in order to do so, they say the girl must adhere to the hospital’s requirement that she receive vaccines before the surgery.

Outside of the Covid-19 vaccine, the teen would also be required to have up to date shots for influenza and human papillomavirus.

For their part, doctors at the DeVos hospital have been informed of the family’s objections to vaccination on religious grounds and the transplant team has indicated that they would meet with the hospital’s ethics department,The Grand Rapids Press reported.

“At Spectrum Health, the health and safety of our patients are of utmost concern. Due to patient privacy concerns, we are unable to discuss specific patient situations,” Spectrum Health said in a statement to The Independent.

Alisa Campau (front) with her family. The Michigan family of the 17-year-old girl has sued the hospital that is denying Alisa placement on the kidney transplant list until she receives up to date vaccinations, as is required by the hospital’s policy (Provided by Campau family/Global Newswire)

In recent months, consensus within the medical community has overwhelmingly leaned towards recommending Covid-19 vaccines for both potential and current organ transplant patients.

The American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the American Society of Transplantation and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation issued a joint statement this year recommending the life-saving shots for patients earlier this year, and even emphasised the importance of other members of the household also receiving the vaccine.

“We strongly recommend that all eligible children and adult transplant candidates and recipients be vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine that is approved or authorised in their jurisdiction,” the societies wrote. “Whenever possible, vaccination should occur prior to transplantation (ideally with completion of vaccine series a minimum of 2 weeks prior to transplant).”

Though they were developed using cell cultures derived from feotal cells gathered from elective abortions in the 1970s and 1980s during the testing stage, both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines contain none of the cells in the jabs.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, however, does in fact contain a foetal “cell line” from aborted foetuses from decades ago in its production and manufacturing, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said.