Peony Moss: July 2006 Archives

Judge lifts order requiring treatment for teen cancer patient

ACCOMAC, Va. A judge ruled today that a 16-year-old Eastern Shore cancer patient who has refused conventional medical treatment does not have to report to a hospital.

The judge also set a trial for August 16th to settle the dispute....

Accomack County Circuit Court Judge Glen Taylor agreed to a stay, which means Abraham won't be forced to undergo more chemotherapy for now. He has undergone alternative treatments, including herbal treatments.

A juvenile court judge on Friday ordered Abraham to report to a hospital for treatment of his cancer. The judge refused to lift his order yesterday and Abraham's parents sought a stay.

Taylor also ended joint custody of Abraham between his parents and social services officials, which was also ordered by the juvenile court judge.

This is really scary: your doctors don't like your choice of treatment, so they go through the juvenile court system to compel you to undergo the treatment they recommend -- and possibly to take you away from your parents, if it's deemed "in your best interests"?

If Abraham were a Sarah who wanted to undergo an abortion, nobody -- not the judge, not the doctor, not the parents -- would have anything to say about it. It would be between Sarah and her doctor. And if Sarah wanted to decline the abortion, supposedly it would be her choice.

So why doesn't Abraham have a choice about his own body -- one that he's made with the approval of his parents?

And what's up with these doctors? I thought the medical profession was trying to do away with "paternalism", the "we know best" idea -- that patients' autonomy was to be respected.

What happened to informed consent? When I was in nursing school, I was taught that performing a procedure on a patient against his will could potentially be prosecuted as assault and battery. If Abraham had been forced to report to the hospital, could he have brought charges against the nurses who started his IVs? (Would there have been nurses willing to go against his wishes?)

An attorney for the social services department, told the judge the agency would go along with the ruling if a new trial takes place quickly.

Oh, well, that's big of them. Nice to know that social services will obey a judge's order if they approve of it.

Nate Nelson blogged on this earlier this week.

Kathy Shaidle posts this:

"In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair, the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die."

--Dorothy Sayers

I forget where I saw this (NYT -- registration), but it is a scream:

AS I wash dishes at the kitchen sink, my husband paces behind me, irritated. "Have you seen my keys?" he snarls, then huffs out a loud sigh and stomps from the room with our dog, Dixie, at his heels,

In the past I would have been right behind Dixie. I would have turned off the faucet and joined the hunt while trying to soothe my husband with bromides like, "Don't worry, they'll turn up." But that only made him angrier, and a simple case of missing keys soon would become a full-blown angst-ridden drama starring the two of us and our poor nervous dog.

Now, I focus on the wet dish in my hands. I don't turn around. I don't say a word. I'm using a technique I learned from a dolphin trainer.

I usually don't like articles about "husband training" with that whole "husbands are stupid" vibe, but I got a kick out of this one.

After two years of exotic animal training, my marriage is far smoother, my husband much easier to love. I used to take his faults personally; his dirty clothes on the floor were an affront, a symbol of how he didn't care enough about me. But thinking of my husband as an exotic species gave me the distance I needed to consider our differences more objectively.

I adopted the trainers' motto: "It's never the animal's fault." When my training attempts failed, I didn't blame Scott.... I dissected my own behavior, considered how my actions might inadvertently fuel his.

I'm totally going to take notes.

Excited about the movie? The Holy Father and the Curt Jester are waaaay ahead of you.

Saturday, September 30 at the National Mall!

I just saw the author list and I am so juiced! I'm even excited that Alexander McCall Smith is going to be there and I haven't even read any of his books! I so hope that Dana Gioia's going to be speaking and that I'll get a chance to listen....

Tragic news: Regina Doman, the author of the magnificent Angel in the Waters (among many other books and articles) lost her four-year-old son in a car accident.

I cannot imagine this agony. Prayers for Regina and her family.

picture behind the jump