Posted on 08/29/2003 2:44:56 PM PDT by Onelifetogive
Twelve-year-old Parker Jensen apparently won't be starting the new school year anytime soon. He and his mother have been forced into hiding because his parents have refused to subject him to chemotherapy – a treatment authorities in Utah have legally mandated for the boy.
Parker has been diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a deadly form of bone cancer, ABC News reported. His parents, Daren and Barbara, wanted to get a second opinion from a doctor after receiving the first recommendation of chemotherapy.
Authorities in Utah, however, had different plans. They obtained an order from a Salt Lake City court compelling the parents to have Parker undergo the treatment. The only options, the parents believed, was to flee the state with their boy.
According to family members, the Jensens are not convinced the initial diagnosis made three months ago was even correct.
"Ewing's sarcoma normally appears in the bone, but Parker's was a tumor in the mouth," Parker's uncle, Tracy Jensen, told ABC. "The hospital wanted chemotherapy right away. But we wanted a second opinion. They wouldn't let us get one, and before you knew it, my brother and his family were on the run."
According to the report, doctors at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City said Parker has only a 5 percent chance of survival without the chemo.
On Aug. 16, a day after prosecutors filed kidnapping charges against the parents, Daren Jensen was arrested in Idaho and, reports ABC, is fighting extradition back to Utah.
The parents allowed the tumor in Parker's mouth to be successfully removed, but were unconvinced painful chemotherapy was needed as a follow-up.
"There is no scientific evidence whatsoever that you need chemotherapy for this particular kind of basically mild cancer," Rick Jaffe, the family lawyer, told the network. "All the evidence really relates to this full-blown bone involvement where you have very sick kids."
Jaffe explained the family has a pediatric oncologist lined up to give them a second opinion and treat Parker, but the charges against the parents prevent them from seeing him.
"The problem is, we can't bring him to him, because as soon as we show up, the mother will be arrested and the child hauled off by force to Utah," the lawyer said.
According to the report, Jaffe says if the mother shows up at any hospital, she will be subject to arrest since the parents are "fugitives from the law."
The state Attorney General's office defends the government's action against the Jensens.
"We are very concerned with the health of this young boy and the surrounding issues of state power vs. parental responsibility," the office said in a statement. "Parents have a natural and fundamental right to direct the medical care of their child – but if in making that decision they place the child's very life in substantial danger, the Supreme Court has determined that the State has an obligation to step in. In other words, a child has a fundamental right, independent of a parent's wishes, to live."
Parker's uncle explained the boy's parents believe Parker will get worse and may die if suspected to chemotherapy.
"Chemotherapy is a horrible and painful thing to deal with, especially for a child," he told ABC. "It may also leave him sterile and stunt his growth. We want other options. And we fear it will take him to the brink of death, and we don't want that, especially when there is no evidence that his cancer is what the doctors say it is."
According to the report, Jaffe believes the best solution for everyone would be for the police to drop the charges and allow the family to return to Utah so Parker could undergo other tests at another hospital.
That's nice...a state official trying to "balance" the life of a child and his own political power!
Sure I want what's best for this child....but not if it means I loose control over people's lives....
The state is not even letting them get a second opinion....
I am curious as to who "they" is. How can anyone prevent someone from seeking a second opinion, especially when the first opinion was one diagnosing a life threatening disease?
Now I do take issue with their lawyer's statement referring to the cancer as "mild". Cancer is not mild by any means regardless of how it starts. I have pics of my dad to prove that.
"They" was the term chosen by the uncle of the boy...not necessarily a lawyer. My guess...the boy's doctors disagreed with the parents desire to get a second opinion. (Timing is probably the issue) The doctors probably went to "child protective services" to get the court order...
Yeah...right!!!
That depends on what the meaning of the word "child" is...
I have had personal experience with this disease... Why have they waited THREE MONTHS to get a second opinion? This boy is very sick and WILL DIE without treatment.
We all feel government should butt out of our personal lives, but this is one case where I feel the state correct. Believe it or not, there are cases when the stat must step in for the best interests of the child.
Just look at all the people murdered with AZT before they discovered it was useless for treating HIV. Note how they never really publicized the failure.
Iatrocide, death by doctor, is one the biggest killers in this nation.
Cancer cells feed exclusively on glucose; a typical component of chemotherapy is glucose. Doctors have an "accepted" routine for fighting cancer, and are afraid to stray from that pattern for fear of malpractice suits. Whether it works isn't the issue.
Chemotherapy is nothing more than poison where they're trying to kill the cancer cells without killing the patient.
If you take "Flowers of Sulphur" and fast for five days every six months, cancer cells cannot survive. I saw this in Texas where a middle-aged man began experiencing severe pain in his lower torso and was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. He walked out of the Dr's office and began his Flowers of Sulphur (1/2 teaspoon twice a day) and five-day fasts twice a year. That was four years ago, and as long as he keeps it up, he's the picture of health.
Its gone.
We already have more goverment medical spending than most Socialist nations such as France or Canada. For thousands of years doctors were employees of their patients, now they are first and foremost agents of the State. Bush's 400 billion dollar expansion of the Medicare entitlement will only accelerate the State control of medicine. A couple more years of a Republican Congress/Presidency and HillaryCare will be fully implemented.
Check out DDP ringleader, Art Robinson's Access to Energy Newsletter and the DDP Site for other strange thoughts.
So why do the other doctors have a problem with the family getting a second opinion - afraid of a conflicting diagnosis? Afraid of being proven wrong?
Sounds to me like they just got their heads up their arses and want to retaliate for these parents suggesting they'd like another opinion.
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