The mother deserves a Darwin Award. Sadly, it is her daughter who will be the recipient.
TomSrOfBoston, is this your answer to MY question, or just your opinion generally.
It makes sense to include the single status of mom here, as parents (plural) should be advising their child, but the only child status and the location of schooling status are most likely irrelevant here.
Unless you are stating that home schoolers are more independent, which is typically true.
I am not arguing anything about her independence. The exact opposite, in fact. She is completely dependent on her mom at that age and it’s very difficult to go fundamentally against the person who pays for your housing and food.
Not all families have a mom and a dad and that is simply a fact of life.
Having an abortion is not committing suicide. Refusing treatment for a curable cancer is very, very close to suicide. She is 17. I would support a decision to refuse treatment for an incurable condition. In this case? No way.
Here, her problem is not defying her parent. She has an inability to defy the State, and that should worry everyone.
In this case the state is protecting her as the parent. As it should do. Fortunately she’s under 18 so that can happen.
The state now can take control of kids for lots of reasons–abuse, neglect etc. Would you take that power away? In a perfect world the answer would be yes. but it’s not a perfect world.
Right now the age is 18 and she falls in those guidelines set by our society.
She cannot defy her parent either.
Normally, I’m not a fan of letting the state make decisions (my area of study is Eugenics…), but I am in favor of the state stepping in when the parents are writing an unreasonable death sentence for their child (refusing chemo, refusing blood transfusions, believing in “faith healing”, etc)
What adults want to do with their bodies is their business. Children don’t always have that option.
Kudos to the state of CT.
My friend’s granddaughter was 19 and refused “traditional” treatment and is now on her deathbed. For months they were holding fundraisers to pay for expensive homeopathic “remedies”. When they finally realized the nutrition plan wasn’t working, it was too late. Here’s an old article from the time they were optimistic:
http://www.13abc.com/story/23961309/local-girl-is-fighting-cancer-with-nutrition
toledo, I am so, so sorry for you and your friend and the whole situation.
If this isn’t a sign that we need better science education in this country, I don’t know what is.
It also blows my mind that many people are so willing to believe that god has a plan for everything but refuse to believe that (s)he couldn’t be making modern medicine, doctors, nurses, hospitals, etc as part of that plan.
(I don’t want to get into a religious debate. I am an atheist and it is something I don’t understand. It was just a response to a line in toledo’s link.)
^^^ Ugh… but what can you force a 19-year old to do?
I would forever be haunted by where did I fail as a parent (not saying her mother did, only saying I would be).
Stage 4 throat cancer treatment would be quite brutal, even if she had started it when first diagnosed.
Toledo–I’m very sorry. And I hesitate to even say but stage four throat cancer would be brutal and trying something different would not necessarily be an uninformed decision no matter your age,
I have a friend from when we had children together in the NICU. This child spent 8 months in the NICU, and then was in and out of the hospital many (many) times. She wasn’t expected to live to 2, then at age 7 or 8 she had a serious problem, stopped breathing many times and really had a loss of cognitive function too. Over the years, more issues. Finally at age 16, the daughter said ‘no more’ and even though she wasn’t really capable (legally) of making that decision, after many conversations with doctors and hospice and family, they honored her request. She died 1 month before her 18 birthday, having left school and just spent her time dancing and being with friends for 18 months or so. I fully supported this decision. If she was still alive, she’d be in pain She was never going to ‘recover.’
I do not think this girl or her mother have put nearly the time or research into their decision as my friend’s daughter did. They claim to be ‘fighting’ the cancer, but they are not fighting anything. They don’t have a religious objection, don’t have an alternative plan.
I’m not worried about civil rights. I think all children should be vaccinated, even if parents object, because it’s for the good of society.
I don’t think this issue is on par with “women’s rights” over their bodies issues. She was likely misinformed/misdirected by her crazy mother. This will give her the opportunity to become an adult and then make her own informed decisions. As she goes thru treatment, she will likely meet others who are fighting for their lives and she will become grateful that she has a good chance. She will also learn a lot more about her disease and realize why she needed this treatment.
Her mom sounds nuts…a total loon.
Fwiw, I wasn’t bringing up abortion and STI treatment and whatnot in the context of women’s rights. I was bringing it up in the context of adolescents’ rights.
Where is this girl from, Windsor Locks or West Hartford? WTNH and the Courant have two different places.
What does home schooling have to do with this story, @TomSrOfBoston?
Yes, I almost said the same. In fact, none of those 3 things seem to have anything to do with this issue.
I mean that the girl appears to be isolated from other people and completely under the control of her unbalanced mother.
I am a person who generally accepts what people want tot do. But I just don’t feel she is old enough or mature enough to make an informed decision with any facts she has now. I could see if they had tried many treatments and it was quality vs quantity, but she has an excellent chance of survival and a hopefully long life to live. Being sick from chemo and losing your hair stinks but if you can live it is worth it. I am a cancer survivipr and I speak form experience. I had a tough time, but spoke to a woman with leukemia, her experience was more horrendous than mine and she agreed with me.
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Fwiw, I wasn’t bringing up abortion and STI treatment and whatnot in the context of women’s rights. I was bringing it up in the context of adolescents’ rights.
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My point is the same. This isn’t a situation where her adolescent rights to choose whether she wants to become a mother or be treated for a STD w/o parent permission.
I can see @TomSrOfBoston 's point, even if it seemed out there are first. likely the only major influences this girl has had has been from her whackadoodle mom.