Saturday 19 May 2012

Mother's fury after Facebook removes pictures of baby son who lived for just eight hours after being born with rare birth defect

Precious moments: Heather and Patrick Walker say goodbye to their newborn son Grayson who only lived for eight hours after being born with a rare defect
Precious moments: Heather and Patrick Walker say goodbye to their newborn son Grayson who only lived for eight hours after being born with a rare defect


Hello Friends!


A furious mother is demanding answers from Facebook as to why they took down photographs she posted on the site of her son, who was born with a rare birth defect, and then later banned her from the site altogether.

Grayson James Walker, from Memphis, Tennessee, was born on February 15, 2012 with Anencephaly, a rare neural tube birth defect in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull.
His parents Heather and Patrick Walker knew 16 weeks into the pregnancy their son would not live very long due to his birth defect.


Love and care: Patrick and his two other children cradle Grayson before he passes away

Love and care: Patrick and his two other children cradle Grayson before he passes away

MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) - More than 1,000 Action News 5 Facebook fans are rallying around a mother who feels Facebook is discriminating against photos she posted on the social media network of her son.
Faith: Heather and Patrick knew at 16 weeks their son would not live long but they decided to have him anyway so they and their other two children could share some precious moments with him
MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) - More than 1,000 Action News 5 Facebook fans are rallying around a mother who feels Facebook is discriminating against photos she posted on the social media network of her son.

'They of course gave us the option to terminate,' said Heather. But they chose to carry their baby full term and turned to God for strength.

'My husband and I, we started prayer and we knew that God knew since the beginning of time that he had us for this,' she said.

The couple were fully prepared to have to say goodbye to him on the same day they welcomed him into the world.
So, with the help of non-profit organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, they had a professional photographer to take photos of their newborn, just the same way as they did with their other two children and what most parents around the world do.

Magic moments: With the help of non-profit organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, they had a professional photographer to take photos of their newborn, just the same way as they did with their other two children

Magic moments: With the help of non-profit organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, they had a professional photographer to take photos of their newborn, just the same way as they did with their other two children

Memories: The family wanted to remember baby Grayson's brief time in the world and had a photographer come and capture the first and last moments of his life

Memories: The family wanted to remember baby Grayson's brief time in the world and had a photographer come and capture the first and last moments of his life

Family: Facebook fans are rallying around a mother who feels Facebook is discriminating against photos she posted on the social media network of her son

Family: Facebook fans are rallying around a mother who feels Facebook is discriminating against photos she posted on the social media network of her son


WHAT IS ANENCEPHALY?Anencephaly is a disorder that results from a neural tube defect that occurs when the head end of the neural tube fails to close, usually between the 23rd and 26th day of pregnancy, resulting in the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp.

The remaining brain tissue is often exposed — not covered by bone or skin. Most babies with this genetic disorder do not survive birth, however there have been notable exceptions.


 
He only lived for eight hours but the Walkers wanted to capture his short life so his memory could live on forever.
Heather explained to Fox News that she uploaded the pictures on to her Facebook page so she could share them with family and friends.

In most of the pictures, baby Grayson is wearing a hat. But in some, he was not.
Heather explained: 'Not long after, Facebook deleted them because of the content. They allow people to post almost nude pictures of themselves, profanity, and so many other things but I'm not allowed to share a picture of God's beautiful creation.'

According to Facebook's community standards page, there are nine types of content that may be deemed offensive and removed: Violence and Threats, Self-Harm, Bullying and Harassment, Hate Speech, Graphic Violence, Nudity and Pornography, Identity and Privacy, Intellectual Property and Phishing and Spam

Heather said she has no idea which category her child's picture falls under but has now launched a protest  - posting the picture several times and getting her friends and family to contact Facebook.
The networking site responded by banning Heather Walker from Facebook.

Patrick Walker said of his son: 'You know, my son lived almost eight hours, and he's already done in eight hours what I could never do in a hundred lifetimes, and that's awesome.'
Facebook have yet to respond to requests for comment.

Culled from The Daily Mail UK.

xoxo
Simply Cheska...

3 comments:

  1. This is so horrible & heartless! I'm looking for a link To Mrs. Walker's Facebook page so that I can show her my support. Does anyone have a link?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would just like to say i don't think what she done was wrong . i had pics of my son i lost on my myspace page and no one minded . for every one that reads this we are not to barrie our kids they are to barrie us and when u carrie a baby in ur tummy for 9 months they become a part of u and then to have lost him . ur hole world comes crashing down . i love the fact that she had them on her page and if people didnt like to look at them they didnt have to look at them but to say that she can't put them on her page is wrong that is there son he is and will allways be a part of there family and no one should be able to take that from them ..
    Michelle Oglesby from Paragould Ar.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @ Shannon, unfortunately I do not have her facebook link(truly wish I do) however, I think one can easily view her protest link via her facebook page...Maybe typing out her name on the search bar would help? Maybe. It's really sad that she was denied the chance to mourn her child the best way she wanted to.

    She has the right to her choices, so long as they don't tamper with other people's rights. Can't understand why facebook did what they did...

    ReplyDelete