Posted on 01/15/2015 2:17:00 PM PST by Morgana
A 17-year-old girl in Connecticut who was recently diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma has decided she does not want to receive chemotherapy to treat her disease. The mother of Cassandra C., as she is known, supports her decision, but the state of Connecticut does not. It has removed Cassandra from her mother’s custody, given itself the authority to make medical decisions on her behalf, and initiated chemotherapy treatments against her will. On January 8, 2015, the Connecticut Supreme Court denied Cassandra’s appeal of the ruling requiring her to undergo treatment and ordered her to continue receiving chemotherapy.
If my daughter were diagnosed with the disease Cassandra is facing, I would high-tail it with her to the nearest cancer treatment center, stat. Hodgkin lymphoma, also known as Hodgkin’s Disease, is one of the more treatable, curable types of cancer. The physical ordeal of chemotherapy seems a small price to pay if it results in a return to health and the prospect of a longer life. But I am not the mother here; a woman named Jackie Fortin is, and Fortin claims that her nearly-adult daughter has carefully considered her options and their potential consequences and does not want to undergo chemotherapy at this time, preferring instead to investigate alternative treatments.
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I gave this issue some thought and I think it has been framed as minors rights vs. the state and that may not be completely correct.
If this girl were not a minor, its not clear to me that she would automatically be free to choose to avoid treatment. I would assume that if she were 19, the hospital would try to have her determined as incompetent because she refused treatment. As a minor it is assumed she is incompetent but as an adult its still possible to prove she is not competent and the courts could have appointed a guardian.
I had Hodgkins, some time ago, and indeed it is eminently treatable with chemotherapy. But it has to be handled soon, or it will spread and get worse, until it is no longer treatable.
Ordinarily, I stand with the rights of people to decide their own medical treatment, or that of their children. But in this case, I’m inclined to say that the daughter is as dumb as a rock, and the mother is not much better.
The leftists want more abortion. They are in love with abortion.
As for the chemo, the state sees it differently. It’s seen as an opportunity for the state to take control over someone’s body.
Interesting how the feminazis chanted that they didn’t want anyone to control their bodies.
A true leftist can hold two contradictory thoughts at the same time, and not see any conflict. Normal people see the conflict.
Me too...10 plus years ago. Very treatable if done early. Very high survival rate. Throwing your life away at 17...Very sad.
This ruling is even more scary. What is to prevent a progressive state from forcing an abortion on a girl under 18 even if she and her parents are wanting her to carry the baby to term? Can’t they just say they know what is best and take legal custody and force her to abort?
The left are big hypocrites. I can do what I want with my own body, except eat sugar, smoke cigarettes, or refuse chemotherapy.
My vote: The family is full of people who are dumber than dirt. Hodgkin lymphoma is fatal without treatment but curable with a high probability of 5 year survival with treatment, with the best odds for young patients. The mother and daughter made a stupid choice. Still, I would prefer that the government allow people to make stupid choices - perhaps insist that they learn the facts, but then step back and allow people to be as dumb as they wish.
It’s sad that a girl this young would refuse treatment as she most probably could be cured. Imagine it’s hard for a parent to force a 17yr old to undergo treatment but I would have every friend, priest and neighbor encouraging her to go through with it.
Different for the very elderly though - chemo sent my mother straight down fast and she was gone within 2 months, one month which was in hospice care.
I hate chemo because mostly it does not work but it does work on Hodgekins and leukemia. Not that the girl should be forced but she could have serious counseling about it to help her through the procedure with the understanding that she has a really high chance of recovery.
If only the two of you could talk with this 17yo girl and share your stories... Very few cancers are curable, and this is one of them.
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In my opinion, the only obligation the State has is to make sure that she is making a fully informed decision, and maybe over a period of time, at least as long as they State may force upon women wanting an abortion. We either have liberty or we don’t.
Why would a Mother advise her kid to basically Die ?
Is the Mother a member of some religious cult or was she up to something else ?
The Mothers role here is strange .
That is so true...well at least ten plus years. I was 34 then. No doubt it sucked big time...but hell i got to watch my son grow up...he’s 12.
What a blessing. :-) Of course, twelve is still so young. He must’ve been very little when you were diagnosed. It must’ve been frightening facing chemo at that time. Thank goodness you took that step, though.
There’s a video out there of an interview with the mother. I watched it yesterday. She was making the kinds of statements that advocates of holistic and alternative medicine make. So, it seems as if the daughter is being influenced heavily by her mother.
The mother herself must be heavily influenced by alternative medicine advocates.
When I looked into alternative medicine, what I found is that none of the survivors could offer many details about their cancer. There was one survivor I found who had a nice website, and I wanted to hear more of his story, so I emailed asking him about the pathology of his tumor. All he could tell me was that it was stage 3. When I asked what grade, he didn’t seem to know there was a difference between stage and grade. IOW, he may indeed have survived cancer without chemo through his special diet, but maybe that’s because he had a slow-growing, meek type of tumor.
With that said, if conventional medicine offered no options, I’m sure we’d all try the alternative route. I had a friend who was told she had no options, and that’s what she did. It was worth a try; it didn’t hurt; and the hope alone that it might work enriched her remaining days.
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