Parents Hide Son to Avoid Chemo

[Guest guest]

The interaction between the State and families seems

incredibly complex or/and far reaching.

 

I used to think that people were wrong because of they

did not avail themselves of allopathic medicine or

healthcare at all in some cases and that the State

should be able to exercize its " police power " (I think

that is the legal term for a gov't to force people to

do anything) to force people to care for themselves or

at least their children. A moral argument for State

control.

 

When I was in law school for a year, a fellow student

said that smoking should be made illegal because it

cost society health and other dollars. An economic

argument for State control.

 

Taken to its logical conclusions, these arguments

crush not only the individual but also carve in stone

whatever power structure exists at the time - which is

to say that self-interests of the existing power

structure will be carved in stone. The alternative is

not pretty, because there will be tragedies because of

individual decisions and respect for those decisions

rather than State mandated tragedies. One could argue

costs either way: one side could say lack of treatment

will raise costs and others could argue that State

mandated/medical tyranny mandated care increases

costs, even if there is an increase in " efficiency " .

I am reminded of a story about a child with leukemia

whose parents did not avail themselves of allopathic

standard of care but went with an alternative

treatment. I do not remember if the story was written

with the outcome for the child known. But, an MD was

quoted as saying this was a tragedy because childhood

leukemia is so successfully treated by " modern

medicine " . I read a few months ago that the preferred

pharmaceutical chemo-treatment for childhood leukemia

has a 60-90% rate of causing irreparable, life

altering cardiac damage within a few years of

treatment.

 

All this follows both from people giving away their

power and accountability for their actions and from

people who are only too happy to take other's power,

even if they have good intentions - though it is

doubtful that the power-mongers have other's best

interests or any of their interests in mind.

 

Benjamin Rush, a Revolutionary War hero, physician,

and signer of the Declaration of Independence wrote:

 

" Unless we put medical freedom into the constitution,

the time will come when medicine will organize itself

into an undercover dictatorship. To restrict the art

of healing to one class of men and deny equal

privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of

medical science. All such laws are un-American and

despotic. "

 

Barry

 

 

>Parents Hide Son to Avoid Chemo

>

> Comments?

> Misty L. Trepke

> http://www..com

>

.......

 

when Parker was

> diagnosed with

> Ewing's sarcoma, a deadly form of bone cancer.

> Doctors at Primary

> Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City said

> Parker needs

> chemotherapy, and that he has only a 5 percent

> chance of survival

> without it. A Salt Lake City court agreed, and

> ordered the parents

> to have the boy undergo the treatment.

>

> But the boy's family disagreed. They question the

> accuracy of the

> test that led to his cancer diagnosis, said Parker's

> uncle, Tracy

> Jensen.

>

> " Ewing's sarcoma normally appears in the bone, but

> Parker's was a

> tumor in the mouth, " Jensen said. " The hospital

> wanted chemotherapy

> right away. But we wanted a second opinion. They

> wouldn't let us get

> one, and before you knew it, my brother and his

> family were on the

> run. "

>

> Rick Jaffe, the family lawyer, contends that

> life-and-death

> decisions, such as whether to undergo chemotherapy,

> should be made

> by a child's parents, not the state. The parents did

> allow Parker to

> undergo surgery to have the tumor removed, but they

> do not believe

> he needs chemotherapy at this point.

>

> " There is no scientific evidence whatsoever that you

> need

> chemotherapy for this particular kind of basically

> mild cancer, "

> Jaffe said. " All the evidence really relates to this

> full-blown bone

> involvement where you have very sick kids. "

>