First Nations girl chooses traditional medicine over chemo

[Daradon]

I totally agree with that, and I think it does make sense in a lot of the cases you hear. I'm glad things worked out the way they did for you and I understand your feelings on the subject. I like you was a very sick kid too, so I think the two of us get the discussion better than most.

The one thing that makes this a little different to me is that the treatment wasn't denied originally on religious or spiritual grounds. It was tried, and it went very badly. I do believe in patients rights. The only thing that makes it grey here is that it's a child, and yeah, they don't always have the proper tools to make the best decisions. But it is still her body. If she was an adult and wanted to refuse treatment after trying it cause it was too hard on her I would think that was fine. I might not do it in the same situation myself, but it's her body, her decision. So really the question here for me is, how much of this is her decision, and can she be trusted to make it?

[Leondros]

Originally Posted by Daradon

I totally agree with that, and I think it does make sense in a lot of the cases you hear. I'm glad things worked out the way they did for you and I understand your feelings on the subject. I like you was a very sick kid too, so I think the two of us get the discussion better than most.

The one thing that makes this a little different to me is that the treatment wasn't denied originally on religious or spiritual grounds. It was tried, and it went very badly. I do believe in patients rights. The only thing that makes it grey here is that it's a child, and yeah, they don't always have the proper tools to make the best decisions. But it is still her body. If she was an adult and wanted to refuse treatment after trying it cause it was too hard on her I would think that was fine. I might not do it in the same situation myself, but it's her body, her decision. So really the question here for me is, how much of this is her decision, and can she be trusted to make it?

And legally, as a minor, it is not her decision. Thats the whole point of age of majority and the point of having guardians.

[Daradon]

But a guardian, whether it's parents or the state can agree to go with the childs decision and/or wishes.This happens all the time with other decisions. Obviously the stakes are higher in a medical decision, but I'm not sure that it's a given that the child is overruled or not considered. Legally or morally.

[Daradon]

I guess, to add to that, I totally get overruling a medical decision based on battling misinformation and even religious v scientific grounds. However, forcing someone to receive treatment that has been shown to be overly painful and with more hardship than is average, doesn't seem correct. People have rights to their own treatment, and should not be forced.

As I mentioned, I know where I would stand if I was the kid or the parents, I would push through this chemo and take the treatment. But I can't make others decisions for them, nor would I want to. If she doesn't want to, I gotta go with that.

As I said, I would be worried, I would have questions, how much is her, how much information does she have, etc. But all things being equal, I can't really make judgements.

If I was in the decision making process for this case, I'd want to talk to the girl, advise the girl, clear up any scientific/religious misgivings and even give her a bit of a pep talk on trying again. But at the end of the day, I think you gotta respect the patients decision to their level of pain and quality of life, and even to certain extent, I guess as part of the overall equation, their religious beliefs.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Well at least you didn't resort to stereotyping.

Stereotyping, pattern recognition, potayto, potahto. It's entirely possible that they take responsibility, but I find it unlikely.

[metallicat]

I'm not sure where I side as far as taking the child away, but I think its incredibly irresponsible for the first nation and her parents to be making these medical decisions for her based on no science whatsoever. If she dies because they refused proper medicine, it's on their conscience.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Children's Aid Society needs to assess what is in the best interests of the child.

Period.

Now it's up to the social workers to assess the situation in its entirety (the article says a 75% success rate, is that with the harshness of chemotherapy on a 10 year old body or an adults or overall? I honestly don't know).

What is the family history? How is the child treated outside of this one situation? Etc.

*IF* Children's Aid Society concludes that the child should be removed, then the legal process kicks in and it's up to a judge to agree.

Basically, it's not simply "the kid's not doing chemo, remove her from her parents!" it's more complex that than, although this is a life or death situation, but I'd want to know more about the 75% success rate.