CT Supreme Court Decision: Teen can't refuse Chemo

LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN · Jan 9, 2015

Saw this on the news, how hard for the girl and her mother. She said she only gets twice weekly visitations, which are supervised. she wants to be there for her child.

We let 14 year olds dictate who can see their medical records and 16 year olds in my state can refuse treatment. She can have an abortion without parental consent, but can't refuse her own treatment? 12 year olds can be charged as an adult with some crimes. In 9 months she is considered an adult, what burden of proof do they need to consider her a mature minior?

"To go on and be a happy adult" uh you don't think she is going to be traumatized by being forced into treatment she clearly doesn't want and separated from her family?

This is just so sad

SC APRN, DNP, APRN, NP · Jan 10, 2015

You can join the military at 17!

Not_A_Hat_Person, RN · Jan 11, 2015

Seventeen-year-olds are minors. They need parental pemission to join the military or get health care (in most cases). In the back of my mind, I wonder if she is being coerced. Every news story I saw about this showed an interview with the mother, and only the mother. Why didn't the daughter speak publicly?

morte, LPN, LVN · Jan 11, 2015

Seventeen-year-olds are minors. They need parental pemission to join the military or get health care (in most cases). In the back of my mind, I wonder if she is being coerced. Every news story I saw about this showed an interview with the mother, and only the mother. Why didn't the daughter speak publicly?

oops, wanted to quote, not like.....i would think the state is forbidding her from being interviewed.

LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN · Jan 12, 2015

She is in state custody, hospitalized with someone outside her door preventing her from leaving, don't think the state is granting her the ability to be interviewed

elkpark · Jan 12, 2015

Also, the press can't interview a minor without the parent's permission and they also often have policies about protecting the privacy of minors regardless of the circumstances.

Farawyn · Jan 14, 2015

Seventeen-year-olds are minors. They need parental pemission to join the military or get health care (in most cases). In the back of my mind, I wonder if she is being coerced. Every news story I saw about this showed an interview with the mother, and only the mother. Why didn't the daughter speak publicly?

Maybe she is too immunosuppressed.

toomuchbaloney · Jan 16, 2015

She is in state custody, hospitalized with someone outside her door preventing her from leaving, don't think the state is granting her the ability to be interviewed

So she is not free to come and go as she prefers, she is under some sort of "house arrest"?

While I question the wisdom of foregoing this treatment, I believe that we have the right o self determine.

Regardless, it is always sad when a young person is stricken with a deadly disease and is faced with the prospect of a difficult and unpleasant course of treatment or death.

morte, LPN, LVN · Jan 17, 2015

she is locked up in a hospital.

So she is not free to come and go as she prefers, she is under some sort of "house arrest"?
While I question the wisdom of foregoing this treatment, I believe that we have the right o self determine.
Regardless, it is always sad when a young person is stricken with a deadly disease and is faced with the prospect of a difficult and unpleasant course of treatment or death.

ComeTogether, LPN · Jan 17, 2015

I don't blame DCF, and I can only wonder what on earth the Mother is thinking.

The article said that she has said for years that she wouldn't put poison into her body if she ever got cancer? So an opinion she had when she was 13 is still her opinion? Clearly, she doesn't understand what chemo does to cancer, or why it works well in this type of cancer.

When I think about the opinions I had at 17, the things that I thought were right and wrong, without question...... There is no way that I was mature enough at 17 to decide something like this.

The question for me, is whether she understands the choice she's making, and I don't think she does.

We're talking about a CURABLE form of cancer, here. A survival rate of at LEAST 85% (I believe for most otherwise healthy 17 y/o it's more like 97%) Not a glioblastoma or some other kind of nearly always terminal kind of cancer.

I do feel bad for her that she has been taken away from her family, certainly It would be better for everyone if they could be together, but they certainly won't be together for long if she doesn't get the chemo.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Jan 17, 2015

You can join the military at 17!

Yes, with parental consent.