Free Republic

HARTFORD — The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Windsor Locks teen is not legally mature enough to decide against life-saving chemotherapy. The unanimous decision, after a 75-minute hearing, upheld a lower court ruling that the state can force treatment for Hodgkin´s lymphoma on the girl, identified as Cassandra C. The state Department of Children and Families had been awarded custody of the child, who is "doing well" with chemotherapy at Connecticut Children´s Medical Center, a lawyer for the state told the justices. The court Thursday heard arguments from lawyers for Cassandra and her mother, Jackie Fortin, who supports

HARTFORD — For the state's child-protection agency and the cancer doctors at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, there is no debate: 17-year-old Cassandra C. will die of Hodgkin's lymphoma without chemotherapy, and the teen doesn't have the legal standing to reject the treatments on her own. But at a noon hearing Thursday before the state Supreme Court, the justices will consider the constitutional argument from lawyers for Cassandra and her mother, Jackie Fortin, who supports her daughter's decision to reject chemotherapy treatments. The Department of Children and Families won temporary custody of Cassandra at the Superior Court level and Cassandra, of...