A new debate is raging across America today after Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) ordered a 17 year-old girl with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma to be removed from her home and forced to receive the chemotherapy she is refusing to undergo.
CBSLocal in Connecticut is reporting that the girl, identified only as “Cassandra C” in court papers was diagnosed in September with Hodgkins Lymphoma. According to appellate briefs filed by Cassandra’s attorneys, “the uncontroverted testimony of several medical professionals indicated that Cassandra’s disease, if treated with chemotherapy, presented an 85 percent chance of survival, but if left untreated, presented a near certainty of death within two years.”
In spite of their recommendations, after Cassandra researched the side-effects of chemotherapy – nausea, diarrhea, hair loss and fatigue – she refused treatment – and her mother supported her decision. Neither mother nor daughter is refusing treatment based on religious beliefs – they simply don’t want it.
According to the DCF’s appellate brief , Cassandra’s parents are divorced and her father plays no meaningful role in her life. When Cassandra developed a mass on the right side of her neck last spring, her mother failed to bring Cassandra to medical appointments concerning the diagnosis of the mass and fought with her doctors over the accuracy of their findings. Her neglect of Cassandra’s dire medical condition is what caused doctors to refer the matter to the DCF.
The agency successfully petitioned the courts to issue an order of temporary custody, then removed Cassandra from her home. She was admitted to a local hospital where she underwent two rounds of chemo before running away. She eventually returned but adamantly refused any more treatment.
In the meantime, Cassandra and her mother appealed the court ruling and claim that forcing treatment upon the teen violates her constitutional rights by allowing the DCF to intervene. They also claim that the state should recognize the so-called “mature minor doctrine” which requires a court to first determine if the minor child is mature enough to make medical decisions on her own.
“It’s a question of fundamental constitutional rights–the right to have a say over what happens to your body–and the right to say to the government ‘you can’t control what happens to my body,’” Cassandra’s mother’s attorney, Michael S. Taylor, told WTIC.
He also argues that in a state where you can drive at the age 16, have an abortion without parental consent before age 18 and be charged as ‘an adult’ if you commit a crime under the age of 18, that a 17-year-old should be permitted to make decisions about the care of his or her own body.
Their appeal to the state’s Supreme Court was quickly taken up and Cassandra’s case will be heard Thursday at the Connecticut Supreme Court in Hartford. Until a decision is reached, Cassandra is required to remain in the hospital and continue chemotherapy. If the court rules in her favor, she would be permitted to end chemotherapy treatments.
Regardless of how the court rules, the case may be appealed which would make it the first case of its kind to be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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