Posted on 06/10/2005 4:17:36 PM PDT by freepatriot32
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas Medical tests today showed that cancer has returned to a 12-year-old girl whose parents were in court to fight radiation treatment because they believed her illness was in remission.
The new tests were revealed by state attorneys during a hearing that was supposed to determine whether treatment for Katie Wernecke was necessary in the days leading up to a custody hearing next Wednesday.
Texas Child Protective Services removed the girl and her siblings from the home of Michele and Edward Wernecke last week after doctors said discontinued treatment could be life-threatening.
Katie was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease in January, when her parents brought her to the hospital for pneumonia treatment.
The parents had insisted the four rounds of chemotherapy Katie received killed the cancer and that the recommended radiation therapy would only harm a healthy girl.
But Friday's results, "changes everything," said Daniel Horne, an attorney for the parents.
The judge decided that the girl, who was not present for the hearing, would remain in state custody.
He recommended that the girl's treatment begin tomorrow, her 13th birthday. The judge did not immediately address how involved he would let the parents be.
Weird.
Is it possible to be very glad that the child is going to get treatment, yet still be very, very squicked at the thought of the government mandating our medical treatment and health care?
Yeah, I guess it would be better all around to just let her die.
Fundamentally the only argument that could possibly be made with respect to a liberty interest external to the young girl herself would be the right of parents to kill their kids.
Are you kinda' trying to creep around and do that sort of argument?
I'm sorry about your mother. Fortunately for this girl childhood Hodgkin's has an excellent prognosis with proper treatment, while it is terminal without treatment.
It has a very high "cure" rate.
Yet this child should receive the radiation treatment. Lymphoma has a high cure rate if they would follow accepted treatment plans.
For some cancers, unfortunately, there is no "right" answer as even the most aggressive therapy may do little to save the life.
In other cancers, however, such as Hodgkin's Disease, the cure rates are so high with appropriate treatment that denying such treatment is as murderous as denying a child surgery for appendicitis or antibiotics for pneumonia.
No, there's a big distinction when a kid is involved. You, as an adult, can refuse medical treatment. But when an irrational parent is making that decision for you, then it's not your decision. Who's going to step in? In this case a judge.
It's not a perfect solution. The perfect solution would be for the parents to not be irrational.
It was my understanding that the doctors and parents agreed that the child was in remission. Seems the doctors had the child in a test program, some patients with chemo and radiation treatments vs. just chemo treatments. The girl was part of a study program, and the medical profession didn't want their results skewed by over zealous parents.
Ping! I thought you might be interested in the new development. So much for the parents' announcement that they just knew their daughter was in remission.
Ok. Would it be okay for the government to say, "Hey, she's not going to get better, stop the treatment?"
That doesn't mean such things don't go on. We had the problem with the syphilis patients in Alabama, and the military regularly conducted such tests with dependents.
No, not unless the government wasn't paying for that treatment.
Dead girls are an even bigger problem. The parents not treating her constitutes abuse. The state did the right thing here.
The diseases where you have lots of "options" are the diseases that do not yet have very effective treatments and one treatment is just as good as the other.
For the really bad diseases, your M.D. won't even argue with you if you tell him you want to go to Mexico to have coffee enema treatments. It won't matter in the end. Whatever floats your boat is the "right" thing to do.
With other diseases, certain therapies are so successful that denying such therapy would be tantamount to murder if you deny that treatment to others.
If you want to treat your own appendicitis with acupuncture, you are perfectly free to do so. The Government has no qualms about allowing an adult to earn a Darwin Award.
However, if you intend to treat your child's appendicitis with acupuncture, the Government will step in and not allow you to murder your child.
Oops, WAS paying for that treatment.
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