Boy flees Mexico to avoid chemo due in part to religious beliefs.

[Tiberius]

I again ask not to be treated like you have a monopoly on rational thought. We have free will in this adventure, and although you can think I am being silly, you cannot declare with certainty that I am. You might just be incorrect in your assumption.

Certainty is relative, so yes, I can be certain of something and still be wrong. I was certain that after a weekend of rain and dreary weather, the week would be the same, but we're having a BBQ tomorrow. I was wrong. I'm still certain that you are being silly.

To my question about whether or not I have the right to choose (in my own case) what to do about cancer, you said "Of course you do,". Thank you, that is all I ask for. You can belittle my point of view all day, as long as you don't try to say I can't have one (but you can).

You have a choice, but I don't have to agree with it or even support it. However this wasn't about you, this was about a boy who was dying. He wanted to live, this is evident. He believed that the only way he could live was through natural remedies. These natural remedies would have done nothing. Ergo, the doctors (who also wanted him to live) decided to intervene and grant his wish, even though the method went against his desires.

Let me try and make a (bad) analogy. Say you have a child who really wants to fly like a bird. She just wants to run off the edge of a cliff and fly. There is nothing wrong with wanting to do this, but she cannot fly, and she will fall to her death. Now which is the better option? Let the girl fall to her death, or get her some hand-gliding lessons so she can run off the edge of a cliff and fly (almost) like a bird? The outcome is what she wanted, but the method is quite different.

That seems like part of a very strange definition of science. I don't know if 'look both ways before you cross the street' is a law of nature, or even a very good theory paper. All I can do at this sentence is shake my head and move on.

Science is about experimentation and acquired knowledge through observation. If you have given up on science, I suggest that you forget all about safety, forget all about car speeds, forget all about the frailness of the human body (all of which have been revealed to us through science) and just run across a road. You will soon see how we need science every day.

Another jewel! I can say that that is a beautiful turn of phrase to justify hurting a child that you don't even know. I can almost not bring myself to disagree with what you said, except what I realize (within a second) what it means.

I'm not advocating hurting the child, I am advocating giving the child the only treatment that will save them. Chemo can be painful, yes, but dying of cancer can be even more so as it spreads through your body and kills off your organs. I saw it happen to my grandmother; I was in the room as she moaned in pain, waiting for the doctors to authorize morphine doses. Don't you dare say I am justifying hurting children. That is a LIE and you know it. You disgust me by even suggesting it.

I don't know what I find more disturbing; that you would refuse life-saving treatment to a child who wants to live, or say that the only reason people like me would is that we want to harm the child.