Forced chemo, parental rights, and religious freedom

by dinah 15 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  dinah

  This case just bothers me.

  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_he_me/us_med_forced_chemo

  Yes, I understand parents are responsible for their children and I dont want anyone stepping in to take control of mine BUT when your views of life are clouded by religious crap........

  The mother says her child is not in immediate danger from cancer? Misplaced faith if you ask me. If I had cancer I would want a doctor to go along with my prayers.

  Will this kid grow up (if he is allowed) and change his view of the world? I noticed this sect was founded by a man who was convicted of fraud.
• 

  JeffT

  "I feel it's a blow to families," he said. "It marginalizes the decisions that parents face every day in regard to their children's medical care. It really affirms the role that big government is better at making our decisions for us."

  Here's the flip side of the coin.

  Forty or fifty years ago, when my father first started his research on bone-marrow transplants it was experimental. A lot of his leukemia patients were children. At the time leukemia was a death sentence. So was the high dosage radiation and chemo-therapy needed to cure it. Resolving that puzzle took a lot of clinical research that could only be done on sick people. Every cancer survivor today owes something to the people that were willing to take the risks involved on the experimental work.

  There are a lot of things left to conquer. How would it feel to have some government beaureaucrat say something like 'look he's going to die anyway. You can't do this do him." And if we go to a single payer system, we're going to see more of that.

  Like it or not, these decisions; going either way, are the families. If we empower the government to say "you have to" we have empowered them to say "you can't."
• 

  dinah

  How did this get to be about religious conviction and Nationalized healthcare?

  The question is: Are parents in a cultist, mind-controlling religion allowed to let their children die because of misplaced faith?

  The problem wasn't the parent's inability to pay for healthcare or insurance.
• 

  JeffT

  Dinah, your post is self-contradictory. A question about misplaced faith IS a question about religious convictions. I made the remark about Nationalized health care only because cases like this put us at the top of the slippery slope. If we allow government officials (courts) to make health care decisions in cases like this, we've surrendered our rights as parents to the government. That is the point of the line I quoted from the story you linked to.

  Do you think the government is any better at deciding what constitutes a "mind-controlling" cult that is at say, finding weapons of mass destruction?

  Do I think these parents are wrong? Absolutely. Note what I said about my Dad's work and the debt survivors owe those that came before. Do I want the goverment to assume the job of parent? Absolutely not.
• 

  VIII

  So, will they (Big Brother) start demanding that JWs take blood transfusions? Where does it end?

  If they can demand that a kid get chemo, then they can demand a kid get a vaccination etc.

  I agree, the parents are totally f-up'd, but, do we want them to tell us we can't feed out kids Captin Crunch?
• 

  dinah

  they can demand a kid get a vaccination

  They already do that if you plan to send them to school.

  I understand it's a thin line.
• 

  hamsterbait

  PARENTAL RIGHTS what EXCREMENT is that all about?

  Parents do NOT own their child like a house a farm or a ring they can sell when they need the cash!!

  Parents have NO RIGHTS over their children.

  Parents have only DUTIES to those they have brought into the world. Their kids did not ASK to be here.

  Duties to give them self esteem, coping skills, self confidence, the capacity to love, and see the world as a BEAUTIFUL place where there are no stone age gods out to get you if you go against some nomadic taboo.

  isn't it strange that Parental "RIGHTS" are only ever invoked when it involves wasting a young life for the consciences of the deluded parent?

  Oh and VIII - the witlesses had to refuse vaccinations when certain states made them compulsory. There is testimony on this site from youngsters of those days how their parents would use acid to FAKE vaccination scars. The ban was only lifted when NH Knorr wanted to do a world tour of the WTBTS conventions - and knew he would probably come back in a coffin without them.

  The WT said " we cannot be held legally responsible for the conscientious decisions" of individual JWs on vaccination. (UNtil then it was VERBOTEN)

  HB
• 

  hamsterbait

  VIII -

  I don't want to seem like I am singling you out. I don't think that any government would make such a fool of itself by forbidding you to give your kids crispy creme, McDonalds or full cream milk.

  These meals do not KILL in themselves.

  Refusal of vaccinations does not only put the individual CHILD at risk, it means that child can carry potentially LETHAL viruses to its fellows at school nursery, or as an adult work.

  HB
• 

  VIII

  From what I understand you can refuse vaccinations on the grounds of autisim. This is gaining ground all over the US. Hollywood is behind it big time. So is Oprah, isn't she?

  Gotta run...
• 

  JeffT

  You can choose not to vaccinate your kids, and by so doing you are choosing to keep them away from other kids (school). The issue is different because other peoole are affected by it.

  And yes, there are food police trying to regulate what we eat, too. I'll find a reference when I have a minute.