Should a 17 year old be forced to undergo Chemo for cancer If she doesn't want it?

[Sarcasm13]

A 17 year old girl in the US was diagnosed with Melanoma cancer. If she gets it treated she has an 85% chance of survival. She does not want the treatment because she doesn't want the poison in her system. Her mom said she agrees with her daughter. A judge ruled today that she can be forced by the state to undergo treatment. Without treatment she may have 2 years to live. Do you think it is ok for the state to force this unwanted treatment? Please explain.

Here is a link to the story: www.nbcnews.com/.../connecticut-teen-curable-cancer-must-continue-chemo-court-n282421

It is ok to force her

It's not ok to force her

I'm impartial/ It doesn't matter to me

Other

[AshleyMD]

It's not ok to force anyone to do something they don't want to do (unless they are being punished for committing an illegal act and the punishment is jail time). As long as she is informed about the consequences of not getting treatment (chemo) then she as young adult (I'm calling her that because she basically is) has every right to refuse it, there is no decent reason why the state should force her, even if she was mentally impaired.
It may save her life, but who are you to tell her she needs live if she doesn't want to?
Receiving treatment for an illness should always be the person with the sicknesses option even if they are underage. The only time a family member should have a say is if the person is unconscious and there is no 'will-type' writing of their wishes in that scenario or if they are too young to make an informed decision (around 12 and under). The state should never be able to have a say medical situations.

[AshleyMD]

After reading the article, it seems to imply that it was the mother's decision rather than the girl's. I see why the court would say that given the circumstances. What they really need to do is find out what she truly wants without any of her mother's input.

[Sarcasm13]

The daughter did an interview and said the decision is hers. The mother is just advocating for her daughter.

[AshleyMD]

Ok if it's her decision, she should be able to make that choice. It might be a life-death decision, but it's her life no one else's. It's selfish for someone to choice life for another person because of their own difficulty to deal with them dying when they already chose death.
I'm 18 and I would make the same decision as her if I had cancer, in fact I probably will get cancer and refuse to get tested because refuse to know when and I already know that my decision is to not get treatment because I don't want to go through it. So I can make that decision but she can't? She's a year younger than me.

[harakiri]

17 year olds can be immature and just not 'see' the big picture. I think the government has no right to force her to take treatment. BUT if i were her mom, I'd to my best to convince her, get her to see my point of view, stress how much i want her to live her life fully, not call it quits at 17. If that didn't work, I'd get her declared mentally incapacitated and that's how I'd make sure she gets treated. there's no way I'd let my kid die because she doesn't want chemo in her body. Wtf. that's ludicrous. Her mom is a failure in my opinion. Complete failure.

[Prettykangaroos]

Great answer. You put it way more gracefully than me.

[CKtravel]

Personally I kinda share the "autocratic" opinion of this, despite the fact that I come from a post-Communist country and deeply despise everything that involves forcing others to do this or that. That said I think that there's a limit to lunacy and craziness. I think that arguing with "not wanting to have that poison in her system" is the same kind of bullshit as Jehovah's Witness' no blood transfusion "policy". I think that all the courts should force the patients to undergo treatment, because obviously in both cases (and all the similar cases) the patients are "non compos mentis" i. e. they are legally insane (can't gauge the consequences of their act properly). I think we all heard of cases when such nutjobs basically killed themselves by refusing treatment. Just think Steve Jobs :P
(I won't be surprised if this whole idiocy would turn out to be her mother's idea BTW)

[evenlift]

Not giving a child necessary medicine is tantamount to not feeding the child. So, I think the law should be that, if there are people willing and able to finance and to perform the application of this medicine, then yes the child should be forced to take it.

There's a separate question of what the age of adulthood should be. I think it should be 16. Children grow up so fast these days. And most people are as emotionally mature at 16 as they're ever going to be, from my observations. Unfortunately, there's plenty of emotionally immature people of all ages.

[Prettykangaroos]

It makes me sad that she doesn't want to be treated :( but it's her choice, so I guess I don't have a say in it.. I wonder if, since her mom won't take her to get it since she's a minor, could that be child neglect? I'm not saying that it is, just throwing it out there. Personally, if I were a parent, my child would be getting chemo whether they liked it or not. That may be bad, but I could much easier live knowing my child hates me for something than live knowing that I could have done something to save my child's life.

[harakiri]

Lmao. And you said it more sweetly :p

[Anonymous]

SMH... this has less to do about cancer and more about a punk kid and a crazy mother. I seriously doubt half the people defending this kids decision have ever been responsible for a dog/cat let alone a child.

This kid by the way... that apparently want's to die from a HIGHLY curable from of cancer. Imagine your underage child dying of because he/she doesn't believe in antibiotics? I say give her the Chemo and let her find another way to full-fill her death-wish after she turns 18. Chemo sucks but so does saying goodbye to you mom forever.

[Stephen10]

This is just a moral outrage. Being forced to take poison against your will. Welcome to the police state. Even though the drug companies are covering up natural cancer cures and now they say people under 18 must be forced to be injected with poison. What a evil, barbaric world we live in.

[Waffles731]

Its medicine, and medicine and poison are oft two sides of the same coin,
Yes it will suck,
but you are missing is that with an 85 percent chance of living this girl is essentially choosing to kill herself.
Trust me as someone who tried to kill theirself once, thats what is going on so she needs more than physical treatments, she needs to see a therapist

[Stephen10]

@Waffles731 That's not true. Most people who go through treatment eventually die a horrible death. The medical profession has a 2-3% survival rate. Young girls are allowed to have an abortion, and the argument that is used is that it's their own body and they should have the right to choose what to do with it. Being forced to have a treatment that will cause a lot of suffering is dark age mentality. Some people would rather take the chance on their life rather than go through torturous treatment.

[Waffles731]

f she gets it treated she has an 85% chance of survival.
It outright says, and only 2-3 percent of medical patients survive, do you live in the dark ages

[Waffles731]

Doctors have said her odds at recovery are 80 to 85 percent with chemo, but that she will die without it.

[Stephen10]

@Waffles731 Doctors say all kinds of shit. She would have the right to an abortion but doesn't have the right to refuse poison being forced into her body. Go back to the dark ages you moronic ass hole.

[maiez]

A 17 year old knows 2% about whats healthy and whats not. Its perfectly legal and encouraged by me to force her to take chemo. I deal with a lot of chemo patients, it helps trust me. Shell be dead without it.

[1ian20]

It's a touchy topic. I think it's wrong for the court to take custody of the girl and force her to take chemo, but it's going to potentially save her life.

[MissNowhere]

I don't think it's okay.
It's her life, her body, should be her decisions.

[Waffles731]

If your sister wanted to kill herself would you have the same reaction.
Thats what is going on, I've actually tried to kill myself and that is probably whats going on, the fact is that not only does this girl need chemo she needs therapy
Hell being stupid I've done things with probably around an eighty percent chance of living,
Hell, Honking a car horn repeatedly at an angry heard of cows probably was fiftyfifty

[Waffles731]

at an 85 percent chance of living, yes, less than fifty no

[Waffles731]

Thisi s essentially a suicide attempt and as someone who has tried to kill themselves at one point, she needs chemo and a therapist as well because if she survives this, I'd wager she might try to find another way to end it,

[DoraLikesSugar]

Everyone deserves the right to suicide.