13 Year Old Cancer Boy Court Case

Not unless you want to reclassify every death due to illness as a suicide. Wouldn't dying of old age be classified as suicide in that case? If there is a Heaven (there isn't, but, y'know, if there was) it'd be a pretty empty place if that were the case.

Umm...I think he may have been referring to cases where something could be done to cure the disease but wasn't...:\

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Not so much in prison, but they admit them to the Psychiatric ward of a hospital for observation. My mother-in-law is a nurse and works in said ward.

Now, assisting someone in their suicide is chargeable still, just not as common since Doctor Death is no longer practicing "medicine."

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Nemenhah are not Native Americans… they're charlatans… thieves who take a very, very small part of Native American culture, mix it with some mumbo jumbo idea of their own and sell it to people ignorant enough to buy it… and I do mean buy because money is at the root of this cult… just like 99.9% of the ones who've come before them…

The court needs to take the child…

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When Suzanne Somers was diagnosed with breast cancer, she didn't have chemotherapy -- she took bioidentical hormones.

And she's still alive.

Now, I don't know if it's against this 13 year old boy's religion to take bioidentical hormones or if he even needs them, but... just saying.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_he_...d_forced_chemo

First of all, just because it seems foolish to you and me, it doesn't mean it's foolish to the people of that sect. Yes, not getting chemo may risk his life, but in their minds giving him chemo may risk his--and their--souls. Which is most important? It's like telling a kosher Jew or Muslim, "Here, you won't starve if you'll just eat this ham sandwich." For some people, their religious beliefs outweight all other factors. That's why Joan of Arc burned at the stake.

Second, how old does a person have to be to take charge of his life? The whole concept of teenagers is a recent development of the latter 20th century. Through most of man's time on earth, a person has been either a child or an adult. People were working fulltime jobs and marrying at 13. It was only as societies and economies developed to the point that children no longer had to work to keep the family fed and clothed, that they were able to remain in school for a few more years, that anyone ever started thinking in terms of teenagers instead of young adults.

So if you force this kid to take medication, you're saying, "My viewpoint is more important than your relious beliefs. I know better than you what you should do with your own life." As a parent who has lost a child, I know what a crushing blow it is to outlive your own children. Those parents aren't putting their kid's life at risk on a lark or because they don't love him. If there were some other way to heal him, they would. But their religious principles and faith are important to him and to them and deserve to be respected by the rest of us.

Besides, what would you say to the parents if you sweep aside their deepest beliefs, give him the chemo anyway, and he still dies?

In most countries, he's not the property of the state, either. There have been times when governments though they knew better than the parents how to raise their children. That happened in Nazi German, in the Communist USSR, in Communist China, in Laos, and even in the US in the late 19th century when government policy took away Native American children to distant schools to be raised as "whites" and assimilated into the dominant culture. Every one of those examples are condemned today by rational compassionate people.

Now wait a minute, Mark. The Supreme Court has said Native Americans can use in their religious ceremonies peyote and other drugs unlawful for whites. And now people expect that same judicial system to say that Native American medicine is inferior to mainstream medicine? If faith-based use of drugs is right, how can faith-based use of folk medicine be wrong? May be fatal, as may be the drugs, but how can the court permit one and condemn the other? Sounds like this case will drag on until the kid is 18 and able to decide for himself--or else dead.

All very interesting but what does what I said have to do with what you said?

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13 year olds aren't fit to make those kinds of decisions, the boy is also slower than most kids his age he is a couple years behind intelligence wise he doesn't even believe he's sick which nobody can deny. The 'religion' that the parents are are one that the mother found on the internet created by a man who was formerly charged with fraud they had to pay $250 dollars just to get accepted into it, like Caitlyn said it's the Nemenhah that are borderline cult.


According to the statistical evidence and success rate it is...

Also read this

http://www.startribune.com/local/447...13;iiUiacyKUUr

According to Sleezy's article the judge has already ruled

Yeah, I saw that after I posted my statement. Doesn't necessarily mean the case is settled, however. Judicial decisions are appealed everyday.

Simply that there is a judicial precedent supporting Native American beliefs that run counter to laws and beliefs of most US citizens. Never underestimate the propensity of some judges to make odd rulings.

Yeah, and Scientology was started by a man with a history of mental treatment. The folks who died at Waco and in Jonestown all defined themselves as followers of a religious creed. Mormons were outlawed and persecuted for decades in their early history. The Amish were not readily accepted at first. Rev. Moon's church is odd, to say the least. And there are people today who show their faith by handling deadly snakes.

In fact, I find the basic claims of every religion to be unbelieveable, but other people build and attend houses of worship every week. Just because a specific religion sounds foolish or even criminal to you and me doesn't prevent someone else from embracing it.