RE: Of Two Minds A Bit On This One....
January 9, 2015 at 4:12 pm
(This post was last modified: January 9, 2015 at 4:19 pm by Losty.)
(January 8, 2015 at 7:29 pm)Minimalist Wrote: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/conne...motherapy/
Quote:Connecticut’s top court rejects teen’s plea to end state-ordered chemotherapy
Quote:Connecticut’s top court on Thursday rejected a request by a teenager diagnosed with cancer to halt the state-ordered chemotherapy treatments she has been receiving, saying her rights had not been violated.
I suppose there needs to be a cut-off point but OTOH 17 is not 5 or 6.
Wha..?? I'm confused. And too lazy to click link. We have a constitutional right to refuse medical treatment. How the hell can there be a state ordered chemotherapy. That seems kind of fucked up.
(January 9, 2015 at 3:07 pm)TRJF Wrote:(January 9, 2015 at 2:57 pm)GalacticBusDriver Wrote: If you're sane and well informed, I believe the decision is up to you, not some meddling bastard, who knows nothing about you that isn't in your case file, sitting a bench in some court room.
I absolutely 100% agree, but here's the thing:
Do we let a sane, well-informed 5-year-old decide not to get chemo?
A sane, well-informed 9-year-old?
I've said earlier in this thread, and I'll say it again, that I think 18 is too high an age at which to start letting people make their own medical decisions.
But the age can't be 4, can it? So, again, I ask, how do we deal with it?
Because if the answer is "in a certain age range, it's on a case-by-case basis," then the "meddling bastard sitting on a bench in some court room" is going to have a much greater say in far more cases.
Ahh now I get it.
Umm...what's the age when children get to choose which parent they want to live with if their parents are divorced. I think that's a fair age.
Another question I have is, what hospital would administer chemotherapy to an unwilling patient? And what if she refuses? Do they arrest her? Do they strap her down in a chair in her jail cell and administer her chemo?
If she is legally sane, she knows that not having chemo means she will die, and she knows what death means....it's just seems sick to force treatment on someone. My position is almost always on the side of the person who wishes to refuse treatment.
