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A 9-month-old baby at the center of an emotional debate about whether he needs surgery -- and whose mother allegedly kidnapped him -- will have the operation, a Pierce County judge ruled Monday.

Judge John McCarthy said he is convinced that the surgery is in the best interest of the child, Riley Rogers, who has suffered from kidney problems since birth.

The baby has been in state custody since June 9, after doctors insisted that he needs surgery to insert a tube so that he can undergo dialysis to treat a kidney ailment. His mother, Tina Carlsen, wanted to try naturopathic treatments instead.

Carlsen is accused of sneaking the baby out of Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in a diaper bag on Thursday, hours before the surgery was to take place.

Seattle police caught up with her on Saturday, taking the baby back to the hospital and Carlsen to jail.

In a crowded Tacoma courtroom Monday, attorneys for Child Protective Services and the baby's parents argued about what was best for the child.

The father, Todd Rogers, has agreed to the surgery but feels he hasn't gotten enough opportunity to ask doctors about the risks and whether dialysis will actually help his son, said his attorney, Deborah McFadden.

Several of Carlsen's relatives have had similar kidney trouble. One didn't seek any medical treatment and is fine; another had a transplant and regrets it, McFadden said.

The parents may also have trouble trusting doctors because when their baby was born, they were told they should "take him home and love him" because he would live for only a few weeks, their attorneys said.

Carlsen's lawyer, Mike Shipley, defended the parents' right to look into other treatment options.

"Just because a doctor says something, doesn't make it so," Shipley said. "They went and sought other answers to this medical problem."

But Child Protective Services' attorney Karen Calhoun urged the judge to authorize the surgery. She said the baby's kidneys are functioning poorly, leaving him at risk of dying from something as minor as a cold.

She said while the situation is not an emergency, the baby would likely suffer "a slow-motion death" if he doesn't have dialysis. If he gets it, she said, by the age of about 2 he might be able to get a transplant and have "an opportunity to live a normal life."

McCarthy ordered the surgery but set a hearing next week to determine whether the baby will remain in state care. He said Todd Rogers could have four hours of supervised visits with his baby each week and could be at the hospital -- presumably in a waiting room -- during the surgery.

Rogers said he was crushed that he could see his son for only such limited hours and worried that the baby would be trying to heal from surgery in a room full of strangers.

"I'm scared," he said. "I don't know what's going to happen now."

Carlsen, 34, remained in jail Monday on $500,000 bail. If convicted of the second-degree kidnapping charge she faces, she could be sentenced to up to a year in jail.

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..."We don't feel it's necessary to keep her in jail any longer," said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng.

Donohoe declined to say whether the second-degree kidnapping charge would be reduced, but he said the office will "continue to review the case and all the circumstances."

Prosecutors expected to ask the judge that Carlsen be required to meet certain conditions of release set by the state Child Protective Services (CPS). A CPS spokeswoman declined to say what those conditions would be.

Carlsen's lawyer, Jim Lobsenz, said Wednesday that an agreement had not yet been reached to allow Carlsen to have contact with her son, Riley Rogers.

Carlsen, 34, has been in jail since Saturday, when she was arrested on a second-degree kidnapping charge to end a statewide Amber Alert issued last Thursday, after Carlsen took Riley from Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle.

Riley has been returned to Children's to undergo surgery to implant devices enabling him to have kidney dialysis.

Carlson lost custody of Riley to state Child Protective Services on June 9 after she refused to go along with doctors' advice that Riley, whose kidneys may be failing, needed to be ready to start dialysis.

When the Amber Alert was issued, police said Riley was in "imminent danger" of dying without emergency surgery. The next day, the hospital's medical director issued a statement saying Riley, while vulnerable, was not in imminent danger.

Riley's father, Todd Rogers, said Wednesday that he was thankful to hear Carlsen could be released.

"She's not a danger to anyone," he said. "She lives for Riley."

Rogers has defended Carlsen, and Wednesday he said she had simply been following the advice of relatives who have kidney disease to "search the world over" to find alternatives to dialysis.

"They told her she was doing the right thing," Rogers said.

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