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Minnesota fatwa condones donated breast milk for Muslim newborns
New fatwa from Twin Cities cleric condones Muslim mothers feeding donated pasteurized breast milk to premature and ill babies.
MINNEAPOLIS — A new chapter in local medical history began Thursday at Children’s Minnesota, one that could improve the lives of many children. It resolves an age-old dilemma for Muslim mothers who can’t produce enough breast milk for their newborn babies struggling to grow.
Dr. Mohamed Mahad, an imam at Nurul-Iman mosque in Minneapolis, issued a fatwa that clears the way for Muslim mothers to feed pasteurized donated human breast milk to babies who are premature, ill or have a low birthweight.
“When Islamic law is unclear, Islamic scholars will gather to understand, discuss and issue a fatwa, or legal position on a topic,” Dr. Mahad explained.
To read the fatwa click on this link.
Thursday’s announcement was the culmination of months of discussions among health providers, milk banks, Muslim community members, experts and scholars. This fatwa is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States.
“It brings us great joy to learn that you sought out help to solve this problem by actively involving the communities in the decision-making process and jointly designing a solution with those who are most affected.”
There are at least 140,000 Muslims in Minnesota and many believe that breastfeeding someone else’s biological child creates a form of kinship with that child. According to Dr. Mahad, that creates the risk the child may someday unknowingly marry someone who nursed them or is related to them through breast milk kinship.
For medical professionals in Neonatal Intensive Care units, it has been heartbreaking at times that newborns can’t take advantage of donated breast milk.
“These conversations in NICU often felt like an impasse,” Dr. Leah Jordan, a neonatologist at Children’s Minnesota, remarked at the fatwa-signing ceremony.
“We as the medical team felt strongly about the benefits of pasteurized donor human milk for protecting the life of an infant, and families felt uncertain about how to reconcile pasteurized donor human milk with the beliefs in their faith.”
The fatwa will open the door for Muslim women who can’t produce enough of their own breast milk to rely on the supply from a human breast milk bank.
“This fatwa removes barriers to accessing pasteurized donor human milk for vulnerable Muslim infants and is a monumental step toward increasing health equity in our community,” Dr. Jordan said.
“We celebrate this ruling. The babies who will survive and thrive because of it. The families who will experience peace in their decision-making and the relationships we’ve formed in the process that will allow us to promote equitable health outcomes in our community.”
Much of Thursday’s gathering was devoted to extolling the benefits of human breast milk for developing babies, especially those who are ill or struggling to grow as newborns.
“It’s way beyond nutrition. It is a live, dynamic substance with unparalleled immunologic and anti-inflammatory properties,” said Dr. Nancy Fahim, a neonatologist at M Health Fairview who also teaches neonatology at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
“Human milk saves lives. And when mom’s milk is not available, using pasteurized human milk helps protect these babies against significant infections.”
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Dr. Chip Martin-Chaffee, a neonatologist at CentraCare, amplified those remarks.
“There’s the bacteria actually in breast milk that can populate that sterile infant gut, allowing good, healthy bacteria to grow and foster in that gut, protecting them from getting bad bacteria overgrowth.”
Dr. Martin-Chaffee was especially excited about the opportunity to save babies’ lives in the Saint Cloud area, which also has a large Somali Muslim population. He cited research that shows breastfeeding also gives mothers better long-term health outcomes.
Linda Dech, executive director of the Minnesota Milk Bank for Babies, said most breast milk donations come from mothers who are expressing more milk than they need. She said all donors are carefully screened and the final pasteurized version is regulated by the State of Minnesota as a food product.
But cost and availability have been factors that exclude some families from being able to use those valuable resources. Removing a religious barrier, she said, will be significant in protecting more children.
“With this Fatwa, Muslim families with preemies in the NICU or sick babies in the hospital can have the same access to pasteurized donor milk as others do and help them get off to the best start possible.”
The former state trooper is charged with the killing of 18-year-old Olivia Flores.
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Editor’s Note: The above video first aired on 8/26/2024.
The former Minnesota State Patrol trooper charged with the killing of an 18-year-old girl is asking for his case to be dismissed and a change of venue for it to be moved out of Olmstead County.
The former trooper, Shane Roper, and his attorney argue that the “extensive and regional media coverage” jury pools are likely tainted and a fair trial could not be conducted in Olmstead County.
According to a criminal complaint, Roper was driving 83 miles an hour, full throttle with his lights and siren off when he sped through the busy Rochester intersection by the mall and slammed into 18-year-old Olivia Flores.
Records show he’d been suspended twice and reprimanded twice more for similar behavior.
The order from Roper’s attorney also asks the court to preclude the introduction of any evidence related to prior speeding or traffic incidents involving Roper.
Roper and his attorney are asking for charges 1-8 to be dismissed for “lack of probable cause.”
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‘This doesn’t change anything’ Biden apology for Native American boarding schools draws mixed reaction
For the very first time, a sitting President has apologized for boarding schools that tore Native Americans apart and led to countless cases of abuse and death.
MINNEAPOLIS — During his first presidential visit to Indian Country on Friday, Joe Biden delivered a historic and emphatic apology, acknowledging 150 years of abuse, trauma and death inflicted by Native American boarding schools.
“I formally apologize, as President of the United States of America, for what we did,” Biden said. “It’s one of the most horrific chapters in American history,” said President Biden.
Christine Diindiisi McCleave, former CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, spent years documenting the stories of boarding school survivors and advocating for justice and accountability by the US leaders.
“My family has two generations of boarding school history that I know of,” McCleave said, during an interview for the KARE 11 Series “Lost History,” which detailed the impact of boarding schools in Minnesota.
During his speech on Friday, President Biden acknowledged the work of the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and efforts to better understand the horrors and generational trauma the schools inflicted.
“Generations of Native children stolen, taken away to places they didn’t know,” Biden said. “Children abused emotionally, physically and sexually abused, forced into hard labor, some put up for adoption without the consent of their birth parents. Some left for dead in unmarked graves.”
Christine Diindiisi McCleave: “I struggle with what I’m supposed to say and what I really feel.”
Kent Erdahl: “Why do you say that?”
McCleave: “Well, because today is historic and while I am grateful to see this progress being made. I am also realizing just how short it falls… from real reparations, from real healing.”
She knows she’s not the only one who feels that way. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition surveyed survivors in 2016.
“The thing they wanted the least was an apology because, while it is an acknowledgement, it doesn’t change anything,” McCleave said. “The majority of them said they wanted a truth commission. Trying to find out exactly how many boarding schools existed, how many children went to those boarding schools and how many children died at those schools.”
She says an investigation led by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whose grandparents and mother were among those sent to these schools did help better understand that impact, but it only scratched the surface.
“They were only able to investigate the Federal Government’s records,” McCleave said. “Half of these schools were run by churches, of various denominations, and so a truth commission would be able to look into those records as well.”
“Nearly one thousand documented Native child deaths, though the real number is likely to be much, much higher,” Biden said on Friday.
Bills in both the House and the Senate could make that commission a reality, but until that happens, Christine says she can’t ignore the politics of an apology that took place in a swing state, just days before an election.
McCleave: “This apology doesn’t change anything for my mother, who was abused as a child. Of for my grandfather who was a abused at a Catholic Indian Boarding School.”
Erdahl: “Do you hope that this isn’t just an election ploy?”
McCleave: “I hope that this apology actually helps that bill get passed. Native American people are no stranger to being political pawns, so you know what, if this is an election ploy so be it, I hope something good comes out of it.”
Researchers spoke about increased THC potency and the impact on youth brain development.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Whether purchased from dealer or dispensary, weed has become more potent over the years. In 2022, the federal government reported THC levels more than tripled since 1995.
Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Graduate School addressed this Friday at its first cannabis summit. Attendees primarily included the nonprofit’s graduate students as well as undergraduate students from nearby universities.
Speakers included researchers from the University of Minnesota, Hamline University, Mitchell Hamline School of Law and others.
Ken C. Winters, is a senior scientist at the Oregon Research Institute’s Minnesota location and a consultant for the University of Iowa’s Native Center for Behavioral Health.
He covered the interplay between youth, cannabis and health.
“It’s not your grandparents’ marijuana these days,” Winters said to the students.
The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Graduate school offers a 2-year program, in which students like John Ryan and William Barksdale are earning counseling degrees in substance use and mental health.
“The takeaway would be that you’ve seen potency levels increase quite a bit, and the research is trying to keep pace with that,” Barksdale said.
“As we saw today, marijuana use has gone up in the last couple years such that it’s eclipsed alcohol use in terms of daily users in the United States,” Ryan added. “It’s is much more concerning now because there is such a higher degree of potency that’s available on a wider basis.”
Ryan says it’s especially concerning for youth.
“The subject of the last presentation, which I found quite engaging, was the specific effects on adolescents,” he said. “So, teenagers and people within that young adult range, the 18 to 25-year-olds because that’s generally the period the most brain development takes place. So that’s the area of concern … but it’s still something that I think is being studied and being observed in the first stages of that.”
Kevin Doyle provided opening remarks. He has more than 35 years of experience as a licensed professional counselor. Today, he’s president and CEO of the grad school.
“Potency, dosage, frequency of use, availability, legal cutoffs in terms of age, all those things need to be talked about,” Doyle said. “Adolescent brain development. We know more and more about that every year. Sometimes it seems like every day we learn more about that.”
“How do we as a treatment community need to be prepared to respond?”
The summit comes as Minnesota works to set rules for the cannabis industry after legalizing the drug for recreational use last year. A public comment period is expected later this fall.
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