THIS STORY OF A SEARCH FOR A MATCHING BONE MARROW DONOR IN NEW HAMPSHIRE HAS A WEST MICHIGAN CONNECTION: ‘Help Giovanni’ site shut down: Complaint derails bone marrow effort.

Michael Guglielmo's infant son Giovanni suffers from a very serious immune disorder and Mr. Guglielmo is doing everything he can to raise money and to get more people signed up as potential bone marrow donors. He built a web site called helpgiovanniguglielmo.org with photos, information, and requests for financial donations to help the family care for Giovanni and visit him in the Boston Children's Hospital. He printed up fliers for local businesses to display, but when some didn't post them, he began calling for boycotts and listed those businesses on a Non Giovanni Supporters page on the web site.

It's at that point that Robert Dewey of Wyoming, Michigan became involved. He was alerted to the effort, but declined to donate:

Dewey, a 39-year-old Web designer who says he has been a foster parent for a decade, said he first heard about Giovanni’s Web site from a friend and e-mailed the infant’s father, telling him he felt bad for Giovanni but would not be donating either his bone marrow or his money to the infant.

Dewey said he questioned how the child’s family was using monetary donations and objected to a part of the Web site in which the father listed businesses that refused to post fliers in their windows about his son’s search for a bone marrow donor.

“I’m not insensitive to this family’s plight, but they’ve played fast and loose with this Web site,� Dewey said. “(Guglielmo) knew that if you use it to harass people, that’s a violation of Microsoft’s terms.�

The two exchanged several heated e-mails and phone calls, and Guglielmo included Dewey’s address and phone number on his Web site and encouraged readers to “let him know how you feel.�

Dewey complained to Microsoft, and by last Friday, the site was down.

Now, for what it's worth, the site appears to be back up, with the "non supporters" page still active.

As Jay Tea at Wizbang writes:

There's a fine line between asking for charity and demanding it. Between emotional blackmail and outright extortion.

It's unclear what possessed Dewey to take action, and it's unclear exactly how things went down. At least three stories in the Boston Herald on this have been written by Marie Szaniszlo, and all three are very obviously slanted against anything and anyone who isn't dropping everything to find bone marrow for baby Giovanni. In addition to the story linked at the beginning of this post, she has also written Baby Giovanni fights for life: Family pleads for life-saving bone marrow donor and Clogged phones leave sick baby’s saviors hanging.

While I certainly hope that the marrow search is successful, isn't it a bit much to try to punish people because they won't donate and help? Maybe his intent is to drum up controversy in order to increase public awareness of his family's plight, but it certainly makes him look bad.

More from the article on the boycotts:

"We'd happily work his website at zero cost but would not participate in something that trashes other businesses," Dewey said. "It's intimidating to be told if you don't give me what I want, I'm going to boycott you. He should be out there trying to find donors, not creating boycotts."

After several emails, Guglielmo posted Dewey's name, company and phone number on his website as a non-supporter, and Dewey said he will ask Microsoft to take down the site because it uses his copyrighted company name and misrepresents his position.

"I hope I wake up to your energy being focused on your son and not your battles and boycotts, but if not I will absolutely go to Microsoft and file the complaint," Dewey wrote in an e-mail forwarded to the Monitor.

Guglielmo responded to Dewey by e-mail: "If you want to be responsible for shutting down Giovanni's site . . . then by all means go after my kid. He is the one you will hurt. . . . Let me reiterate: I need bone marrow to save my kid's life and I'm going to do what I need to get it."

I think everyone will agree that most parents would do whatever they needed to do in a situation like this. But I really have trouble believing that spending time and energy promoting a boycott and little personal retaliation games like this is really helping.

For what it's worth, no one can directly donate bone marrow to baby Giovanni. Potential donors must register and be listed in the National Bone Marrow Program database. I've been registered, and I encourage others to do the same. But I won't blacklist you and publish your personal contact info if you decline.