Government Seizes Newborn from Mentally Disabled Mom 22 Hours After Birth

JeanneSager — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:29:00 GMT

I'd like to say it was the unthinkable that happened to Barbara Gamble this week. Canadian authorities seized her sixth child just 22 hours after the little girl, Savannah Nicole Elizabeth, was born. It was just what Gamble and boyfriend Vince Kinney feared would happen.

In the weeks since first sharing their plight with a reporter from the Vancouver Sun, Gamble and Kinney have been the hot topic in Canada. They've become the poster children as much for poverty as for the rights of the disabled. The Canadian government has yet to allow the British Columbia residents to take home one of their children - because Gamble has an IQ that's classified her as "mentally handicapped." She's been quite literally referred to as "too stupid to parent."

She may never be able to take proper care of her children, according to some psychiatrists called in to evaluate her, and officials have said it would cost as much as $6,400 (Canadian) to pay for 10 hours a week of in-home support for Gamble during the first three months of Savannah's life. Gamble lives off government assistance herself, although Kinney (who has an IQ in "normal" range) works as a security guard. Both regularly rack up bills that far exceed the money coming in, and welfare officials have questioned the couple's understanding of their limitations.

Although my initial reaction was to let them take their kid home and just keep a close eye on the situation, a look at a mother in a similiar situation who spoke out in support of Gamble last week gave me a greater appreciation for the government's case. Equating the moms' intelligence to that of a 12-year-old, I realized, leaving a baby with a 12-year-old every day for the rest of his/her life would be grounds for child endangerment or child neglect here in America. A wait-and-see attitude on behalf of the Canadian government in this situation would be tantamount to turning a blind eye to possible child abuse.

Still, I've been holding out hope that before Savannah's birth and subsequent seizure, someone would have pitched in to offer some help for these parents. That someone would step in and work with Gamble to help her understand why having child after child is not the answer. Even a 12-year-old can be taught that in life there are rights and there are privileges. Barbara Gamble has a right to make decisions about her own womb. But parenting is still a privilege. The children she's already delivered are alive - somewhere - they should be the focus of her efforts to be a parent, a chance to show what she can do. Savannah is here now too, and if Gamble wants a chance to be her mom, she needs to put her first.

Image: Vancouver Sun

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JeanneSager — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:33:00 GMT

It was supposed to add credence to the claims that the Canadian government shouldn't be taking a woman's children just because they've labeled her "too dumb to parent." But the follow-up story in the Vancouver Sun about a woman with five kids and the mental maturity of a "12 to 14 year old" did just the opposite for me.

The government has seized each one of Barbara Gamble's children shortly after she's given birth. Among their reasons? Gamble's intelligence quotient is somewhere between 63 and 71, officially "mildly mentally handi-capped." She told her story to Canadian press earlier this month because she's soon due to deliver her sixth child, and she worries the government will once again step in to snatch the child. I could certainly feel her pain at never being given a chance.

Nikki Ross did. She's 31 and mother to five. She's also got an IQ just below 70. She says she's doing just fine as a mom. I'm not convinced.

A single mom (she's divorced from the father of her four oldest kids), Ross doesn't have a job. Short of babysitting as a teenager, she never has. She lives off of government assistance and financial help from her mother. A volunteer agency lends help as well - paying a counselor who helps Nikki with everything from filing income taxes to devising activities for her non-school-aged kids. Her house is filled with sticker charts so she can keep on course with her day - and sometimes she's gotten off course. She's lost her children on and off, sometimes to the state and other times her mom has stepped in to take care of a grandchild. Her biggest accomplishment of late? Figuring out a bus route so she could take herself to the doctor. She has yet to master a calendar.

I'm not arguing the rights to life of the disabled. But what about the rights of their kids? When a mom will forever be 12 years old in her mind, how can she parent a defiant 16-year-old, help an 18-year-old go off to college? How can she handle a middle-of-the-night emergency with a sick toddler when she's only just figured out how to get herself to a doctor's visit at 31? Ross has her mother to help her, but 27-year-old Barbara Gamble doesn't have that sort of help. What she has is a boyfriend who racks up bills well beyond his salary and no job of her own. What she has is a mind psychologists call immature, distrusting, egocentric and lacking in insight. What she has is the mental maturity of a 12-year-old and a uterus that has housed baby after baby since she was 20 years old.

Most of us would consider parents supporting their 12-year-old getting pregnant to be bordering on child abuse. Allowing a 12-year-old to move out on their own after giving birth is unheard of. So, no, Nikki Ross' story didn't make me feel better about Barbara Gamble walking out of the hospital with the latest child she's given birth to in an attempt to convince the government she can be a parent. It made me wonder who would leave a child alone with a 12-year-old for the rest of his or her life.

Image: Vancouver Sun

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