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Forcing boy to get chemo


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What concerns me the most here is that the government is forcing treatment on someone who does not want it. This is taking away a basic, fundamental right.

It would be different if the boy were sick, wanted treatment, and the parents neglected him and refused to take him to the hospital just because they do not care.

But just because someone wans to pursue alternative treatment or object ot treatment on religious grounds does not give anyone the right to force medical care on someone. This is absurd, and dangerous.

And yes, if it is legal in this country that a teenager can choose to abort a pregnancy (something I am staunchly opposed to, despite my otherwise liberal leaning!), then why can't a teenager refuse medical treatment?

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What concerns me the most here is that the government is forcing treatment on someone who does not want it. This is taking away a basic, fundamental right.

It would be different if the boy were sick, wanted treatment, and the parents neglected him and refused to take him to the hospital just because they do not care.

But just because someone wans to pursue alternative treatment or object ot treatment on religious grounds does not give anyone the right to force medical care on someone. This is absurd, and dangerous.

And yes, if it is legal in this country that a teenager can choose to abort a pregnancy (something I am staunchly opposed to, despite my otherwise liberal leaning!), then why can't a teenager refuse medical treatment?

:goodpost:
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pt - I think there are a lot of uninformed people in this world - but not as many as the government does (and being uninformed about an issue doesn't give the government the right to take control). And I have to tell you, your lack of belief in successful alternative treatment does show that you are uninformed on the issue - please note, I am not calling you stupid by any stretch! I believe you are a very intelligent person. But there are alternative treatments for many, many things and people can research them to find out if they want to use them or not. And these treatments do work. As I said, I know people who have used them successfully. And the friend who I mentioned? It's not chemo that has helped shrink that tumor! It's still there, so it hasn't worked on him as it has others - but that's something that is in God's hands.

God knew what He was doing when He designed certain things in nature to take care of diseases and ill health. I'm not saying that doctors are verboten - we use them, just as most people do.

And as kita pointed out - 13 is considered old enough to decide, without parental knowledge, to have an abortion...because it's her body. So why can't a 13 year old boy decide he doesn't want chemo?

There are laws that need to be enforced, for the good of society. Drunken driving laws and the like fall under that. Civil government is supposed to do that. BUT! Civil government doesn't have the right, either under God or under our constitution, to step into a family situation and take over. It just doesn't.

And really, we don't know that he was raised to think chemo wouldn't help him! He underwent it already. So he had undergone something that most of us here have not...I'm sure he knows if he wants to do it again. I remember when I was 13, and I wouldn't have wanted to undergo chemo!

Same here and yep!

bz - personally, I think if the parents wanted the child to have chemo, he should (and the government would back that up...). If they want him to go natural, and he is fine with it (we are not talking a 5 year old...13 year olds aren't stupid!), especially with all the noise being created from it, then that is their decision.


I don't believe this is a "family situation." The boy has a terminal disease and the parents are forcing their beliefs regarding the treatment of that disease on the child. Natural medicines may work, but without some solid credible evidence, there is absolutely no basis for stating that they are a valid alternative for chemo. And a 13 year old girl having an abortion is a completely different issue. Such a girl is not making a decsision which is likely to costs her her life (maybe her soul, but that is definitely not the government's concern). This pretty much equates to neglect and child abuse. Again, I'd ask for someone to show me how this is different from a child having a broken bone and, rather than taking the kid to the hospital, the parents want to treat it with some spiced tea and mint leaves.
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pt - alternative cancer treatments are not spiced tea and mint leaves! Do some research before you throw out the idea that it can work. Again, it doesn't always, but it does work. Neither does chemo always work, but it does work.

Neglect? They DID chemo and it DIDN'T work. They have chosen to do something different, something they are hoping will work.

What is chemo? Literally burning...and destroying cells and the immune system. Mayhap the alternative treatment isn't what is wrong! Perhaps they wanted to stop destroying cells in their son's body and immune system.

And, yes, a 13 year old getting an abortion is very appropo: it is a medical procedure and it can kill her. And it does traumatize many of those who get them. The government has mandated that a 13 year old girl can have her baby ripped out of her body because (in BO's words) they "made a mistake." So, let's allow them to compound that mistake without parental involvement and let them murder their babies. BUT ~~ a 13 year old boy who's already undergone one round of chemo isn't able to decide that he doesn't want to do it again because his parents have "indoctrinated" him. If it weren't so sad and ironic, it would be funny.

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I don't believe this is a "family situation." The boy has a terminal disease and the parents are forcing their beliefs regarding the treatment of that disease on the child. Natural medicines may work, but without some solid credible evidence, there is absolutely no basis for stating that they are a valid alternative for chemo. And a 13 year old girl having an abortion is a completely different issue. Such a girl is not making a decsision which is likely to costs her her life (maybe her soul, but that is definitely not the government's concern). This pretty much equates to neglect and child abuse. Again, I'd ask for someone to show me how this is different from a child having a broken bone and, rather than taking the kid to the hospital, the parents want to treat it with some spiced tea and mint leaves.


I think the difference is: 1. the child already has been treated with chemo once--it wasn't as if he'd had NO treatment whatsoever, 2. the child says not only he doesn't want treatment, but that he will kick and fight them all if they try to hold him down and give it to him--doesn't sound to me like a kid who secretly wants the treatment! and 3. UNLIKE a broken bone, there is absolutely NO GUARANTEE that he will ever recover at all. Broken bones heal.........cancer is not a broken bone. Could the kid have been brainwashed through years of upbringing that natural remedies were the only way to go? Possibly, but not likely, since he did, in fact, already receive chemotherapy once. Just think, if the gov't gets their way and they remove the child from the home to force treatment upon him, he will likely lose his will to live because they will remove him from those he loves the most. How stupid is that?
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The boy isn't being "Forced" by his parents...he sounds like he's doing this out of his own will.

And yes it would be very sad to watch him die under the care of some kind of institution.

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Ah' date=' the special people who are gifted with knowledge and leadership are going to force those who are less learned and like little lambs to receive treatment against their will! Brilliant![/quote']

They've already done stuff like take good pediatric meds off the market and etc...because we are all so stupid...
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The boy isn't being "Forced" by his parents...he sounds like he's doing this out of his own will.

And yes it would be very sad to watch him die under the care of some kind of institution.


I don't believe that a 13 year old is able to discern what his "own free will" is. The reason we don't let people under the age of 18 vote is because they are too suscceptible to doing what their parents tell them, rather than voting in their own best interest. A 13 year old that has lived at home his entire life, all the while being indoctrinated by his parents, is not going to make a decision independent of his past. He has probably never even been allowed to question his parents on this, and therefore has had no access to the information needed to make a rational decision on his own.
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Ah' date=' the special people who are gifted with knowledge and leadership are going to force those who are less learned and like little lambs to receive treatment against their will! Brilliant![/quote']

No body is forcing a competant adult to do anything. And although you make it sound petty, it is in fact the basis behind all forms of government and society. If people could be left to their own devices, we wouldn't need a congress or a judiciary. Face it, the fast majority of people on this planet have no idea what is good for them.
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I don't believe that a 13 year old is able to discern what his "own free will" is. The reason we don't let people under the age of 18 vote is because they are too suscceptible to doing what their parents tell them, rather than voting in their own best interest. A 13 year old that has lived at home his entire life, all the while being indoctrinated by his parents, is not going to make a decision independent of his past. He has probably never even been allowed to question his parents on this, and therefore has had no access to the information needed to make a rational decision on his own.


You could say that about any situation, any child, any family. Where do personal rights end? Every child is "indoctrinated" by something, whether creation/evolution...abortion/prolife.....regular meds/alternative meds. Who has the right to decide what "indoctrination" is okay and what is not?
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This story is incredibly sad........the child WAS treated once, but it takes many more treatments to be effective, plus the chemo & radiation has a good track record for his type of cancer. Although, there is no guarantee, my guess would be that if the treatments were succesful, as he gets older he would be thankful to his parents for insisting he go through the treatments. IF it were my child, I know I'd want to do everything possible to treat the cancer and this would include alternative treatments IN ADDITION to the more aggressive treatments. I too have heard of cases where alternative treatments cured a person, I suppose it depends on the type of cancer (as to whether it will respond). But I think you have to look at the track record for any given treatment. I personally know chemo is the reason my own dad is still here after having treatments many yrs ago. He has had no reoccurrence. That said, the side effects are horrific!

Someone here had also written about an elderly person who didn't want to go to the nursing home......here again, IF that person has no one to adequately care for him at home, I think the nursing home would have to be considered. Things start to border on neglect when we don't act in the best interest of our children and parents. My only thought is that as parents of children and caretakers of the elderly, you want what is best for them, even though it may be a really tough decision.
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You could say that about any situation, any child, any family. Where do personal rights end? Every child is "indoctrinated" by something, whether creation/evolution...abortion/prolife.....regular meds/alternative meds. Who has the right to decide what "indoctrination" is okay and what is not?


This reminds me of a guest speaker I had in college that defined critical thinking as "the ability to completely disregard everything your parents taught you."

Now he wasn't saying people should be disobedient to their parents. He was saying that if you are unable to put aside your preexisting indoctrinations, you will be incapable of critical thought analysis, which I completely agree with.
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SouthernGal, sometimes its not an easy decision.

Right now I have the choice of putting my 4yo son on a heavy drug for his hives. The dr has left it in my lap because its such a big decision that she will not be responsible for it. I have to weigh the risk vs. the need. So far we have chosen to keep waiting (he is already on 8 pills a day for his chronic urticaria). (The dr is fine either way, says most parents do try to wait it out as long as the child is sleeping through the night and not suffering extremely).

My point is I want what is best for my child, and sometimes its not always a fast or easy decision to make. Yes if my child had cancer, I would feel my best decision was to take the chemo....on the other hand, I have a good friend who made the decision to have a bone marrow transplant in her toddler and the toddler died from the complications. (She would not have survived the cancer anyway, but yet the transplant hastened her death....actually the transplant worked, the extreme radiation hastened her death. They had no way of knowing what would happen..they had to make the choice blindly, like many things in life.)

We have no right to sit here and tell someone else what is best for their child or their family, whether we agree or not.

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