Quadraplegic to keep child
PHILADELPHIA, Miss Celestine Tate was convinced that having no legs and no arms " ould not prevent her from being a good mot her. The Philadelphia Department of Welfare disagreed end tried to take awav Miss! Tate's 5-<nonth-old daughter. Niva. But Judge Edward Ko-enberg of the Common Pleas Court thought differently and yesterday awarded the 20-year-old quadraplegic mother custody of her daughter. At a Court hearing before Judge Rosenberg on March 4. Miss Tate used her lips
and tongue to dress and un-i dress her babv. Judge Rosen-’ berg said Miss Tate "has learned to make excellent; use of a poorly endowedbody. “The mother has conclusively demonstrated that we should not look to the body, jwe have for use but the usej of the body we have.” A tearful Miss Tate, lying on a stretcher in a room ad-1 jjoining the Judge's confer-! ence chamber, said “Thank I Heavens” when she learned ! lof the decision. “It was the onlv decision: I the Court could make,” she; said. “God w’ould not have given Niya to me if he didn’t I want me to keep her.” The unmarried mother has i underdeveloped arms and i legs as a result of a birth (defect called arthrogrygosis | multiplex.
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Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34130, 17 April 1976, Page 22
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207Quadraplegic to keep child Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34130, 17 April 1976, Page 22
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