isn't it his decision?

Question

recently a young man , age 18, was diagnosed with cancer. he got together with his parents and made a collective agreement to try herbal treatments instead of kemotherapy for moral reasons. not much later, the boy and his parents were sued and forced to recieve kemo. wouldn't the moeny spent in the court room be better spent helping other families that cannot afford the doctors?

Answer 1

First of all, while I agree with you that money should be better spent on treatments, I dislike posters like yourself who misrepresent facts and use only generalizations, without facts or references. The person in question, whose name you should have given, is Starchild Abraham Cherrix. Also, he is 16, not 18.

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Saturday, Aug. 12:

Starchild Abraham Cherrix is a 16-year-old battling Hodgkin's disease and Virginia authorities. He's had chemotherapy _ which made him deathly ill, he says _ but refuses to take more. When his cancer returned earlier this year, he chose instead to try a sugar-free, organic diet and take herbal supplements under the supervision of a clinic in Mexico. His parents supported that choice.

If Cherrix were 18, there would be no question that he had that right. But since he's 16, the case has landed in Accomack County Circuit Court in Virginia. In recent days, a Juvenile Court judge ordered Cherrix to report to a hospital for more chemotherapy, but then another judge suspended that order. A trial is set to begin Wednesday.

It's hard to imagine a tougher ordeal for Cherrix or his family. The courts don't eagerly intrude on such health decisions, and rightly so. The first impulse of this page is to say the courts should tread carefully, if at all, in the private medical decisions of Americans. But when the case is life-and-death for a juvenile, as it is here, there is ample precedent for judges, in listening to expert medical testimony, to trump a family's decision over the best course of treatment.

Answer 2

In the FIRST place, he's 16, not 18 - he has no background or knowledge that would enable him to make an educated, rational decision on this matter.
The "herbal treatments" are ineffective mexican clinic bullsh!t.
And finally, he WON in court and will be permitted to waste his life away in a Tijuana "clinic".

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=19534

"The Hoxsey method has been as banned in the United States since 1960 and according to the American Cancer Society, there is no scientific evidence that Hoxsey is effective in treating cancer in people. The illegal herbal treatment can only be obtained through clinics in Mexico."

Answer 3

I think by age 18 he was old enough to make his own informed decision.

Answer 4

I agree with you totally.

I guess the state doesn't allow some to kill theirselves if they can help it, and they must consider this a type of suicide.

Answer 5

That`s a very sad story mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,Yeah1

Answer 6

Hmmm.. lemme think about that. Um, YES!!!!

Answer 7

very good point, although how can they make you get chemo