From ... in Alternative News — Jan 10, 2015

17 Year Old Forced Against Her & Mother’s Will To Undergo Chemotherapy

Are we at the point where chemotherapy is, with 100 percent certainty as life saving as claimed? Unless the answer is a definitive yes, there seems to be absolutely zero justification for forcing chemotherapy treatment on anybody who wishes to pursue an alternative method of treatment. 17 year old Cassandra C., who has Hodgkin lymphoma, has been denied in her desire to pursue alternative treatment methods when it comes to her cancer treatment.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled, on January 8th, that Cassandra (who declined chemotherapy treatment) will be forced to undergo the treatment anyway. She cited chemotherapy’s adverse health effects as her main reason for refusing. She is currently being held in protective custody against her will at Connecticut hospital where the forced treatment will begin.

The treatment will be administered not only against Cassandra’s will, but the will of her mother as well, who fully supports her decision. In Cassandra’s own words it disgusts her to have “such toxic harmful drugs” in her body and that she would like to explore alternative treatments, something that many cancer patients seem to be doing today with with what seems to be varying degrees of success. (source) Cassandra expressed that Being forced into surgery and chemo has traumatized her, that it should be a given human right to decide what you want and don’t want for your own body. As Greenmedinfo (where many of the studies cited in this article were found) points out, the mature minor doctrine provides for minors to give consent to medical procedures if they can show that they are mature enough to make a decision on their own. Cassandra is one year away from being an adult, at seventeen, wouldn’t she be mature enough to make that decision? Apparently not, as the court ruled she was not fit to make that decision. Another disturbing factor in this case is the fact that the rights of the legal guardian (her mother) were not even addressed in this case.

The court citied what is known as “legislative findings of medical fact,’ this means that they whole heartedly believed that the government’s views on chemotherapy and the evidence behind its supposed “life saving” properties is completely,unequivocally, 100 percent true. Here is great document pointing to constitutional law titled “The Constitutional Right to Make Medical Treatment Decisions: A Tale of Two Doctrines.” “This Article concludes that a constitutional right to protect one’s health should be consistently recognized; that the recognition of this right should not be artificially limited by excessive deference to legislative findings of medical fact; and that this right will have to be carefully balanced against the state’s real and legitimate interest in regulating the practice of medicine to protect the public.” (source) The document also outlines how the Constitution is supposed to protect people from State enforced medical intervention: “In 1958, in a mostly forgotten case, the Fifth Circuit sweepingly pronounced that, under the Fourteenth Amendment, “the State cannot deny to any individual the right to exercise a reasonable choice in the method of treatment of his ills.” (source) According to Greenmed info, “The uncertainty emerges from doctrinal contradictions and court decisions that appear to affirm diametrically opposed interpretations of the 14th Amendment’s safeguards. As stated in “The Constitutional Right to Make Medical Treatment Decisions: A Tale of Two Doctrines” “The court’s unqualified language (supporting medical freedom) may have been overly optimistic, however; nearly fifty years later, it is hardly certain whether, and to what extent, the government can interfere with individuals’ medical treatment choices” (source) Again, we must ask ourselves, is chemotherapy for childhood Hodgkin’s lymphoma really as live saving as commonly claimed from the medical industry? If the answer isn’t a definitive yes than something is terribly wrong here. According to the Washington post “The teen’s mother has said that her daughter “knows the long term effects of having chemo” and doesn’t want to put “poison” in her body. “This is her human right – her human constitutional right – to not put poison in her body. Her rights have been taken away. She has been forced to put chemo in her body right now, as we speak” This teen is far from not understanding what she is saying, even the National Cancer Institute’s data confirms what Cassandra is saying. (source) Another factor to consider is the fact that there is, as mentioned from a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology a “significant long-term morbidity and mortality associated with treatment of childhood cancer, the incidence of which continues to increase long after completion of therapy.” (source) The conclusion of the study found that those who were treated before the age of 21 had a 10.8 fold increased risk of death versus the background population. Not long ago, University of Michigan researchers suggested that nearly one third of all cancer research published in high impact journals disclosed a conflict of interest.

The study came out of the U of M Comprehensive Cancer Center. Please keep in mind that it’s not the only research centre to outline this type of thing. (source) Another study published in the journal Clinical Oncology titled “The Contribution of Cytotoxic Chemotherapy to 5-year Survival in Adult Malignancies” shows that chemotherapy only contributes on average about 2 percent to the overall survival rate. This is probably something your doctors won’t tell you.

The study concluded that: “As the 5-year survival rate in Australia is now over 60%, it is clear that cytotoxic chemotherapy only makes a minor contribution to cancer survival. To justify the continued funding and availability of drugs used in cytotoxic chemotherapy, a rigorous evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and impact on quality of life is urgently required.” (source) In the United States there are only two approved treatments for cancer – radiation and chemotherapy. Despite the fact that chemotherapy fuels cancer growth and kills the patient more quickly, nothing has changed. Despite numerous alternative treatments that are now coming to the forefront, the medical industry continues to promote and push radiation, chemotherapy and surgery as the only viable options for cancer treatment, this is simply not true. “The reality is that the published literature on chemotherapy-treated pediatric Hodgkins lymphoma patients unequivocally points to accelerated morbidity and mortality due to the treatment itself.

There is no debate on this issue within the medical research literature. So how can the Supreme Court of Connecticut force a treatment on a 17-year old that is virtually guaranteed to make her die early? Given the clear dangers of chemotherapy, there is only one sane conclusion that can be drawn from this case.

The 17-year old is absolutely correct in opting out of chemotherapy, and not because of her Constitutional right to choose her own medical treatment (or her mother’s right to choose for her), but because the evidence is stacked against conventional treatment for the condition.” (source) – Sayer Ji, Founder of Greenmedinfo.com The studies mentioned in this article are from peer-reviewed medical journals, but there is also a lot of independent research out there that has found similar results. For example, one doctor from australia determined that chemotherapy was ineffective 97 percent of the time. (source) The list goes on and on, but the bottom line is that this 17 year old young woman and her mother seem to be well justified in their desire to opt out of treatment, as so many cancer patients choosing to do. Natural alternatives to chemotherapy are on the rise and many people have had success with them. A study published in the International Journal of Cancer determined that “cur cumin induces cell-arrest and apoptosis in association with the inhibition of constitutively active NF-jB and STAT 3 pathways in Hodgkin’s lymphoma cells.” (source) Alternative treatment methods are a completely different topic, and I won’t get into it here.

The study also addressed their concerns with chemotherapy as a primary method. Some might even see this as a form of child abuse. Regardless of whether or not you think chemotherapy is the right choice, don’t you think people should at least have the right to make their own decisions? I think it’s ridiculous, and completely insane to force anybody into chemotherapy who desires to pursue alternative treatments. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below. Sign the petition HERE to support her cause. Sources: All sources are embedded throughout the article .

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17 Year Old Forced Against Her & Mother’s Will To Undergo Chemotherapy

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