I thought her opinion in the video was quite clear, she wants to go home and there's no reason she shouldn't. Do you think her parents are dangerous ?
Her statements on the video came through clearly. What is not clear is if she is cognitively and psychologically capable of making this sort of decision. It is also not clear what impact, if any, being with her family when the video was made had on the statements she was making. Were they actually her thoughts or was she following a "script" given to her by the family? Nobody could possibly know the answer to this unless they were actually in attendance.
The public does not know what Justina said during her official testimony in December 2013. The public does not know her capacity to make important decisions. The care and custody of a chronically ill teenager (who may have significant mental impairment) is very different from the care and custody of an average 16 year old girl.
Justina's father has made statements that indicate that she is functioning at the level of a 5 to 7 year old child academically. That indicates that there is likely a deficit in cognitive and decision making ability. Without her psychological, medical, and academic records (which have not been released to the public) it is impossible to make accurate judgements on this case. That is why there is a juvenile court judge tasked with this responsibility.
You asked if I thought the parents are dangerous. In some respects, yes I do. I think their decision making ability has repeatedly been shown to be deficient. I think that her father has shown anger management issues. I think the family's telling of this story has changed over time and at times they have trouble keeping the story straight. To me, that indicates un-truthfulness. I think that her parents' insistence that she has 'Mito' and only 'Mito' shows a dangerous level of single mindedness that could well put Justina at risk in their care. Patients with chronic disease (be it Mito or something else) are not immune to developing other problems and illnesses. A group of highly educated well informed physicians obviously felt that the symptoms she was displaying in February 2013 were out of line with a Mitochondrial Disease diagnosis. The parents decision to publicly pronounce the Tufts physicians to be somehow superior in specialization, training, or intellect is, quite frankly, laughable and shows poor logic and interpretation skills. Yes, I think she could well be in danger in their care.
When Justina is returned to the parents custody, I predict that she will eventually begin experiencing significant medical issues that she has apparently not been experiencing at either JRI or Wayside. We don't know what, if any, medical issues she experienced at BCH because that information would exist in the medical records that have not been released to the public. We know that she has not experienced issues at JRI or Wayside because she has not been rushed by ambulance to any hospital while in their care. (Other then the one ER visit disclosed by her parents. That visit did not result in admission to a hospital.)
All of the above is, of course, just my opinion.
