A horrible story from California came to my attention yesterday.  A woman has been charged with second degree murder and child felony abuse in the death of her 8 month old son.  What makes this case unusual is the manner of death.  Eight month old Ryder Salman died of a drug overdose from his mother’s breast milk.  His mother, Sarah Stephens, was taking methadone, Xanax, and other unspecified drugs which created a lethal cocktail and killed this poor baby.

Let’s go over the legal end of who is to blame, and then we can talk about the moral blame.

Legally, Sarah Stephens is at fault because she administered the drugs.  Now, was she on prescription and under a doctor’s care for any of them?  For the methadone, the answer is most likely yes (though there has been no independent confirmation of that fact).  Let me tell you how I know this.  As a college student, I worked in an OB/GYN’s office.  This particular doctor that I worked for (in downtown Seattle) had a large clientele of pregnant women who were involved in drug treatment programs.  Most were heroin addicts.  Methadone is the drug that is prescribed – even for pregnant women – to kick the heroin habit.  Yes, it does mean that the baby is born addicted to methadone.  But that is better than being born addicted to heroin.  Were the other drugs, like the Xanax, also prescribed to Stevens?  We don’t know yet.

However, it is easy to assign legal blame to Stevens, because when Ryder was four months old, he ended up in the ER with a drug overdose.  He survived, but that scare alone should have been a wake-up call to a responsible adult.  And at the time, Stevens was warned not to breastfeed.  According to the warnings, methadone alone can accumulate in breast milk.  If she was taking other drugs under a doctor’s care, my guess is that she was instructed not to breast feed.  But we do know that when Ryder first overdosed, she was enlightened as to the severity of what could happen if she continued.  And she ignored it.  Her behavior killed him.  She is both legally and morally liable for his death.

But there is a moral liability that will probably never face justice for their actions – and that moral blame belongs to Child Protective Services in Sacramento County, California.  When Ryder was brought to the ER at 4 months old with his first drug overdose, CPS got involved and determined he was at risk in his mother’s care.  Why wasn’t he removed?  Because his case fell through the bureaucratic cracks.  It took THREE MONTHS for a CPS manager to sign off on that assessment.

And what’s worse, during that time lapse, Stephens was involved in a car accident while under the influence of drugs.  According to police, she drove off the road with Ryder in the back seat.  The police notified CPS, and still they did nothing.  Another risk assessment was being created when the first one was approved, at the three month mark, saying that Ryder was at “low risk for future mistreatment.”  Less than a month after the car accident, Ryder was dead.

And what does CPS have to say for itself?

In a written response, the deputy director of CPS said the safety assessment should be approved by a supervisor upon completion by a social worker.

“However, there are occasions when a time lapse occurs between the review of the safety assessment and the (approval),” Michelle Callejas said.

 

Congratulations, CPS.  Your “time lapse” was pretty much the time Ryder Salman had left to live.

So yes, Sarah Stephens has been charged with murder and child abuse.  And she will most likely be convicted and sent to prison, as she should be.  But CPS holds the moral blame.  Their bureaucratic failings condemned a child to death.  And even with evidence in front of them of a drug overdose and a car accident, they were still willing to say that Ryder was “low risk” in his mother’s care.

Where is the manager who was supposed to sign off on the risk assessment?  Where is the case worker that had an additional car accident report in front of them?  Will anyone at CPS be held responsible for Ryder’s death?  Or will everyone simply shrug their shoulders, reflect upon a tragic error for a minute, and then proceed along their merry way?

Ryder Salman died because at every turn, people failed to help him.  His mother, who should have been his first line of defense, poisoned him to death.  The safety net that so often jumps to conclusions about certain cases, let his case sit on a desk for three months.  And sadly, that safety net has holes that no one seems interested in repairing to save the next child – because there is no one left to speak for Ryder.