chemo against your will? Options

[PurpleDaze112]

I was checking my email just now on yahoo and a news story on the page said that a 13 year old boy was forced by the court to receive chemotherapy to treat his lymphoma. The boy and his parents agreed on trying alternative medicine to treat the illness due to religious purposes. Involuntary medical attentuon, if it has the realistic possibility of saving lives, is entirely legal if the patient is a minor.

Personally, I think that the practice should be disallowed if the minor in question is at a pyschological level that puts them in a place where professionals can be certain that the choice to forgo certain medical practices is the minor's own. But since that boy's lymphoma had a 90% chance of being wiped out by the chemo, I think he's a dumbass for not getting treatment. Still, it comes down to the fact that one can do whatever they want with their body, even if it means letting it die.

[illriginal]

Screw chemo therapy that shit don't work. It's a facade... it's all a money makin scam.

Just like the pharmaceutical industry.

[karmakiller]

Screw chemo therapy that shit don't work. It's a facade... it's all a money makin scam.

Just like the pharmaceutical industry.

My mother's gone though chemo plenty of times. It's one of the reasons she's still alive.

[-DressYourEyelid...]

My mother's gone though chemo plenty of times. It's one of the reasons she's still alive.

my mom went through tons of chemo too, and ultimately it is what killed her, not the cancer. i'm against chemo: it does more harm to the body than good. my mom was a walking ghost of who she used to be for years [9 to be exact].

....

and i've had radiation. i'd rather die than do it again.

so no, i don't think it's right to force anyone to have a treatment they don't want or are against. i certainly wouldn't want it.

[karmakiller]

my mom went through tons of chemo too, and ultimately it is what killed her, not the cancer. i'm against chemo: it does more harm to the body than good. my mom was a walking ghost of who she used to be for years [9 to be exact].

....

and i've had radiation. i'd rather die than do it again.

so no, i don't think it's right to force anyone to have a treatment they don't want or are against. i certainly wouldn't want it.

I guess it just depends on a persons experience with it. Sometimes people don't get doctors who know what to do. My mom's had cancer five times, and chemo is what has saved her life.

The same goes for her brain tumors. She has them shrunk every few years. Obviously, it isn't chemotherapy or radiation, but it's still a drug that injected right near her brain with a long needle. If she decided that she didn't want to have that done then that would probably take her life, and as anyone reading this reply can assume she definitely has the strongest will out of anyone I have ever met.


If this wasn't a young child but an elderly man and the chemo didn't have a high rate of working then my opinion about it might change.