A New Zealand toddler suffering a rare kidney disease has been put under High Court guardianship because her Jehovah's Witness parents will not consent to a life-saving kidney and liver transplant.
The Sunday Star Times reports that the two-year-old, whose identity is suppressed, has had her kidneys removed and is being kept alive by dialysis under the care of a team of specialists.
The Auckland District Health Board went to the High Court last month and sought urgent orders placing the girl under the care of the court.
Justice Helen Winkelmann, who heard the application, said the team had agreed the day before the hearing that without a transplant, the girl would most likely die from infection within months.
"She will most certainly become so unwell within a few weeks that it will not be possible to consider her for a transplant."
Jehovah's Witnesses allow transplants but reject the blood transfusions that would accompany the operation.
Justice Winkelmann's judgment indicated the girl's parents accepted she needed the transplants but could not consent to transfusions.
She ruled that the girl be placed under the court's care but her doctors and parents would be appointed agents, with the specialists treating the girl as they saw fit but the parents in charge of all other aspects of her life.
