Posted on 07/25/2006 5:33:56 AM PDT by ohhhh
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51219
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
LIFE WITH BIG BROTHER Threat: Cancer teen to be taken by force 16-year-old Virginian: 'I'm not going to receive chemotherapy no matter what'
Posted: July 25, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
The father of a Virginia teen seeking an alternative treatment for his cancer says a social worker has threatened to use force to take the boy away from the family for court-ordered chemotherapy.
Jay Cherrix of Chincoteague, Va., is concerned there could be an Elian Gonzalez-style showdown over his 16-year-old son, Abraham, who has already undergone chemotherapy for his Hodgkin's disease to no avail.
Appearing on Sean Hannity's national radio program yesterday, Jay Cherrix said, "When the social-service worker came and interviewed me, I told him how Abraham felt and about how we had met a person who had been cured by this [alternative treatment] and how we were supporting Abraham's decision. I said, 'What will you do with my little boy? Will you take him somewhere and strap him down and put duct tape on his mouth and pump full of this stuff if he doesn't want it?'
"He said, 'No, I will come to your house with a uniformed officer, and I will take your son by force if he resists. And I will take him to somebody who will do that.'
"And I said, 'I don't think I can let you do that.'"
He added there have also been other threats to take Abraham away from the family.
"They told Abraham that if he did not go and have an X-ray, they would put him in a juvenile detention center with drug dealers. They told him that if he did not do that they would put him in a foster home. ... We never thought that people could actually say that to a young fellow like that. We've been surprised by lots of stuff but we have a strong faith and we believe that we'll prevail. We think there will be a judge that will use common sense and compassion and grant a stay on that [mandated chemotherapy] order."
"I can't believe we're gonna live in a society where the government now, through a court order, is gonna send some bureaucrat into your house, take you out in handcuffs, slap you on a gurney and stick some medicine in you because they deem that you've made the wrong decision in life. I can't believe we're actually on the verge of that happening here," said an outraged Hannity. "It's almost like Elian Gonzalez for crying out loud."
In 2000, 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, a Cuban child who made it to Florida by sea, was forcibly taken by armed federal agents in a late-night forced entry into a Miami home to return him to his father in Cuba.
"We have to stop this in the United States," Jay Cherrix said. "This is an intrusion. This is the way you destroy families and it's not fair and it's not America."
On Friday, Judge Jesse Demps of Accomack County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court ordered Abraham's parents to bring him to Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk by 1 p.m. today and give consent to whatever treatment the hospital recommends.
Judge Demps also found Abraham's parents neglectful, and required them to share custody of the teen with the Accomack County Department of Social Services.
"I'm not going to receive chemotherapy no matter what," Abraham said on "Hannity & Colmes" last night. "This is my body, the body that God gave to me, and in the Bible it says for me to take care of this body. It's my temple. ... If you are not able to do with your body what you want to, then you have no rights whatsoever."
When asked to describe his previous chemotherapy treatment, the teen said, "It was worse than dying itself. It was more like torture."
Abraham is looking to stick to a diet of all-natural foods and nuts and take the Hoxsey Treatment from Tijuana, Mexico.
"The diet is an anti-cancer diet which further enhances the immune system; so the three factors, the supplement, the diet and the herbs allow your body to kill off its own cancer," Dr. Allen Chips, who researched the treatment told WVEC-TV in Norfolk.
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WOW!! Did you nail this or what?
Had forgotten all about that debate.
You are so astute in that if a "minor" can agree (absent the [legal] requirement of parental notification) to a serious medical invasive procedure, then why does the same rationale and precedent not apply herein?
What decision? The parents in this situation aren't being allowed to make a decision, they are being told what they will consent to!
On Friday, Judge Jesse Demps of Accomack County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court ordered Abraham's parents to bring him to Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk by 1 p.m. today and give consent to whatever treatment the hospital recommends.
The most fundamental American right is the Right to Privacy.
Conservatives don't like it because it's reasoning let to Roe but without that Right we have nothing else.
Where does a State get the audacity to act in such a totalitarian manner?
It's not a Federal issue yet but if possible it should be made one.
As soon as this kid it taken it, there should be a petition to a Federal Court for a Habeas.
Chicago passed a law banning "foie gras".
Really?? That is amazing....I have to ask why??
"Regarding Accomack County Judge Jesse Demps' decision that 16 year old Abraham Cherrix cannot make proper decisions regarding his own body. Would the judge make the same decision if he were a 16 year old girl seeking an abortion?"
They aren't Jehovahs Witnesses. The boy already had chemo and the cancer was back within 2 months. He doesn't want chemo again. Social Services took them to court.
The parents aren't denying anything. Abraham has decided to forego further chemotherapy in favor of therapies that -- in my non-expert opinion -- have a slim chance of success, but fewer side effects. His parents are supporting his decision.
I'd be right on your side if it were a younger child, or if we were talking about a fairly simple course of treatment without severe side effects. I have severely limited sympathy for parents who deny their kids transfusions or antibiotics or vaccinations that could save their lives at little risk.
As an adult, you can make that choice; you can decide to fast to death if that's your wish and you feel it's a religious duty. But you do not have the right to starve your child. Those "snake-handling types" have no fan in this corner.
But we're not talking about a simple course of treatment here. We're talking about chemotherapy, which has already failed once in Abraham's case. We're talking about a treatment with crippling side effects that, if it fails to knock down the cancer, could leave Abraham bedridden, befuddled and barfing, unable to enjoy the life he has left.
It's a difficult choice: live a short time, fully alert and aware, and make the most of it; go into chemo, which might extend your life, but also might leave you barely able to sit up for the rest of it; or pursue alternative therapies that are unlikely to work, but sometimes you don't have another play and have to throw a Hail-Mary pass. It's a question I pray I'll never have to face, and I'm not inclined to second-guess anyone's answer.
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are toxic. That's how they work. They kill cancerous cells somewhat faster than they kill healthy cells, and the art and science of oncology is pulling back just in time to, one hopes, kill the bad cells without killing too many of the good ones.
I'm not endorsing the natureo-homeo-snakeoil-pathic "alternatives" -- the accepted therapies are the best science can nail down, and they work better than anything else so far tried. We'll do better, but science ain't fast, easy or cheap.
While we're waiting for science to advance, a lot of people will have to choose between years of life and life in their years. Abraham has made his choice, and his parents concur.
We can agree or disagree, and there are no end of philosophical questions to consider, but I'm not inclined to bring down the force of law to second-guess a decision that was not, by the available evidence, reached through deceit, coercion or fraud. I might decide otherwise, but it's his life, not mine, and his decision, not mine.
From here: Virginia teen fights for right to pick Hodgkin's treatment
"This is my body that I'm supposed to take care of. I should have the right to tell someone what I want to do with this body," he says. "I studied. I did research. I came to this conclusion that the chemotherapy was not the route I wanted to take."
A lump on Abraham's neck discovered last year turned out to be Hodgkin's disease, which has a high survival rate with treatment — 85% of patients are alive five years later, according to the American Cancer Society.
Another round, at higher doses, "would kill me, literally. No joke about it," Abraham says. "The first round of chemo almost killed me in itself. There were some nights I didn't know if I would make it."
That isn't what this is.
See my post Virginia teen fights for right to pick Hodgkin's treatment at 90 for info.
Chances are World Nut Daily was given this story by another news source.
That's where WND excels, passing along others information.
When WND comes up with stories itself, that's where the problems begin.
One of my favorite old jokes:
A man is sitting on his front porch looking at a rising river. A police boat on the river pulls over to the bank and offers to evacuate the man to higher ground. He waves them off. "I trust in the Lord," he says. "He will provide."
A few hours later, the river has burst its bank, and the man is sitting on his porch awning with the water lapping at his heels. A fireman in a canoe paddles up. "C'mon! We're getting out of here!" the fireman says. The homeowner waves him off. "I trust in the Lord," he says. "He will provide."
A few hours later, the homeowner is on his roof. The water is up to his chest. A Coast Guard helicopter appears and lowers a rescue ladder. He waves them off. "I trust in the Lord," he struggles to shout over the sound of the rotors. "He will provide."
The waters rise over the roof, and over the head of its owner, and he drowns.
He walks through the Pearly Gates, and faces a blinding light. Falling to his knees, he cries out in despair, "Lord, You promised that you would protect your people. I kept the faith. Why did You forsake me?"
Suddenly, a voice echoes across the clouds. "I SENT YOU TWO BOATS AND A HELICOPTER. WHAT WERE YOU WAITING FOR?"
It's a parable.
Didn't God create doctors? Didn't God give us the gifts of reason and discernment that allow us to learn more about the world He gave us? God certainly gets the credit for penicillin; it was discovered, not invented.
Miracles aren't always bathed in heavenly light and accompanied by a celestial choir. Sometimes they show up in a vehicle with flashing lights on the top, or with a lab coat and a stethoscope, or even in a Petri dish.
If you try to confine God's work to some preconceived notion you've gleaned from Charleton Heston movies, well, that's Deity Profiling, and it's just not right. Take a step back and consider that God just might be smarter than you, and more subtle. If you don't get it all at first blush, it's because you're not supposed to. That's how fathers (and Fathers) teach.
"snake handlers, holistics, aroma therapy et al..goofy maybe, but each is an exercise in volition, and that process is what government is supposed to protect.
The first principle of government is to promote the common good.
Government may tolerate bogus therapies, not because people have an unalienable right to them, but because the therapies generally cause little harm, and an effort to suppress them would be expensive and probably counterproductive."
Can't agree with the 'common good' as first principle of Government. If (first class conditional) the individual free exercise of volition (for or against Christ/the word) is the main reason humanity exists, the institution of government is intended to protect that exercise. Most of everything else is frippery intended by humans to generate temporal power and authority.
Just my take, your mileage may vary.
Top sends
This case is very similar to a Utah case a couple years back.
Here is a web site that explains what happened...the child is still alive!
http://www.patriotsaints.com/MyChildMyChoice/cases/ParkerJensen/
Jenny
Judge lifts order requiring treatment for teen cancer patient
I often tell people it must sound weird that I am a slightly crunchy conservative. I would use an M.D. if necessary, but I trust N.D.s a whole lot more.
Sounds like a position this person would hold--
"We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good"
--Hillary Clinton
I think the Founders had a better idea--
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
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