WWYD? Forcing Treatment

[Meenah]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/con...Su?ocid=HPCDHP

I hope I never have to be in a position to choose between forcing treatment on someone I love or not. Professionally I know she has a really great chance of survival, but I can't imagine being the person to hang that chemo.

[BonBon]

I honestly cannot believe that her mother is okay with her not getting treatment. Who gives a shit about "toxins" when you're DEAD? My brother's good buddy from HS had Hodgkins Lymphoma, was treated (and aren't treatments for this not nearly as bad as others?), has been in remission for 25 years, is married and has a family. How can someone give up that kind of potential? We are BLESSED to live in such a time that a once fatal disease has such a high cure rate.

[Ladybug]

I think child welfare should be allowed to override the parents decision with the best information available at this time. Unfortunately, I think the psychological ramifications of forcing someone into a medical treatment will ripple in unpredictable ways. The pain of those psychological effects could be bigger than cancer in the long run. It's lose-lose situation. We have such limited information.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

This is interesting to me. If she killed a person, she could be tried as an adult. But refuse medical care and you're not an adult?

I think she should get treatment but the varying age ranges for different topics bothers me.

[Vanquisher]

WWYD? Forcing Treatment

This case is so bizarre. I'm internally struggling with it. At 17, you should probably have the choice, but it's clearly in her best interest to be treated.

My liberal brain is hurting on this one. If she was really likely to die, I'd say that she should be able to refuse treatment. With an 85% cure rate though, well, I hope she'll have time in therapy to figure it out and grow up.


Heidi

[Pollyanna]

She needs treatment and so does mom. As I understand the mom has a great distrust of the medical community and actively allowed her daughter to miss appointments. Of course the girl is going to be wary of treatment if her mom is filling her head with an anti-med slant. She's 17, she's not even remotely capable of understanding what she is doing to herself by turning down treatment. Her mom said they will get her treatment if her daughter starts to feel sick, except by then it will be too late. Sometimes someone needs to step in and say, "you're wrong mama". They need lots of love and support.

[PrincessFiona]

I never understand cases like this where parents refuse medical care for cancer. I want to be compassionate and 'get' that they are afraid of toxins or don't trust doctors or whatever, but I can't find it in me. This girl has a 100% chance of death without treatment. The state needs to be able to step in and take over. It's just how I feel.

Kris

[scrub-jay]

I'm guessing it's the "sometimes cancer miraculously heals without medical intervention" articles floating around (most recently seen on fb). This misinformation enrages me. Okay, this happened to someone out there, that doesn't mean we should throw out all evidence-based cancer treatments!