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Can someone explain this? Don't know the story? More info below.

17-Year-Old Girl Forcefully Taken From Her Parents By Govt Agents for Refusing Chemotherapy ~ Video: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

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I'm not too sure about the specifics of this situation. Brittany Maynard was a legal adult, she was able to choose her own treatment plan, the controversy with her situation was that she chose to be euthanize. Again, when she chose that she was an adult, still of her own mind and she moved to a place where it was legal to achieve her plans. As for the teenager I'm assuming she was taken away and forced treatment because she was a minor, the government probably thought that the parents weren't doing their jobs and managing her health properly so they took custody of the child. It's a touchy situation. I do applaud Brittany and her choices because I support an individuals right to choose death over a terminal illness, and it took courage for her to choose what she did. As for the other I have no opinion because I don't know the specifics.

I will say that if she really was taken by force and given treatment against her will, then I am horrified for her. At 17 she is almost a legal adult and can make up her own mind.

epiod wrote:

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IMO - It's still her RIGHT to make decisions for her own health/body. She was turning 18 in a few weeks therefore, she's old enough to know the consequences. I think this is just a case where the government is throwing around their power and stepping in where they shouldn't. It isn't like like she's an 8 year old girl that needs someone to step in for her (in the case that the parents refuse treatment for her).

Maybe this situation is too close to me since my husband has cancer. With that said no one knows what it's like to go through chemo until you go through it.

Yes chemo will hopefully cure the cancer and you live...however no everyone bounces back to the way they once were.

Marty is in immense pain daily. His bones literally hurt. When he moves his joints make ungodly noises. His bone marrow is shot. He cant sleep, he can't taste everything tastes like metal.

Maybe she just wants to enjoy the time she has left without poison running through her.

She was old enough to make up her own mind and in my opinion anyone thats forced to do anything regardless of the specifics or the situation then I think that's awful

Quote :

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday afternoon that the state can require Cassandra to continue treatment.

Her mother, Jackie Fortin, said she's disappointed by the decision. "She knows I love her and I'm going to keep fighting for her because this is her decision," Fortin said. "I know more than anyone, more than DCF, that my daughter is old enough, mature enough to make a decision. If she wasn't, I'd be making that decision."

Here's our original story, reported Thursday morning:

A 17-year-old Connecticut girl recently diagnosed with cancer has been removed from her home after refusing to undergo chemotherapy.

The girl, named Cassandra, is now in the custody of child welfare authorities and is being forced to undergo cancer treatment. The state Supreme Court is taking up her case Thursday to weigh whether she's mature enough to make her own medical decisions.

Cassandra is Jackie Fortin's only child. Fortin has been a single mother for Cassandra's entire life. Until last month, they lived together in Windsor Locks, Conn. Fortin says this is the first time they've been separated.

"Nobody, whether it's her age or an adult, should ever have to go through this by herself," she says.

For the past month, her daughter has been held at a local hospital, undergoing chemotherapy treatment against her wishes. A court gave the state Department of Children and Families temporary custody of Cassandra, as well as the authority to make medical decisions for the teen, after doctors reported Fortin for neglect. Court papers document missed appointments and arguments with doctors over her daughter's diagnosis.

But Fortin says it's her daughter's right to refuse chemotherapy, saying she doesn't want to poison her body.

"This is not about death," Fortin says. "My daughter is not going to die. This is about, 'This is my body, my choice, and let me decide.' "

But Cassandra's doctors say that without treatment, she will die. They testified in previous hearings that Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph system, is lethal without the recommended treatment. With treatment, she has an 85 percent chance of survival.

Kristina Stevens, an administrator with Connecticut's DCF, says the doctors' medical opinions prompted the state to get involved.

"We had the benefit of experts who could tell us with great clarity if in fact we don't do something, if the system doesn't react and respond, this child will die," Stevens says.

Cassandra is just eight months away from turning 18. Joshua Michtom, one of her attorneys, says this adds another complicated layer to the case.

"The general rule for adults is that you can say no to treatment no matter how life-saving it may be," Michtom says. "You can say no even to helpful treatment. If she were 18, no matter what anyone said, it would be her choice to make."

Her attorneys say maturity doesn't just develop at a certain age. They'll argue that Connecticut should adopt the mature minor doctrine, which allows courts to consider evidence on whether a teen is competent to make health care decisions.

This is the first time a case like this has come up in Connecticut, but other states have considered the question. Michtom points to Illinois and Maine as two states where courts decided that even though teenagers who weren't yet 18 had refused treatment or didn't want to be kept alive artificially, there was evidence to show they were mature enough when they conveyed their wishes.

That's Fortin's hope for her daughter. She says the state has ripped apart a normal family and turned their lives into a nightmare.

"I've never been in the system, never had a problem, nothing," Fortin says. "And all of a sudden we have a medical situation and now I'm being deemed as the bad mother."

Connecticut's Supreme Court has promised to rule quickly, but that doesn't mean the justices will decide whether Cassandra can refuse life-saving treatments.

Instead, it could send her case back to a lower court, giving her attorneys a chance to call on mental health experts to prove the teen is competent to make her own medical decisions.

Otherwise, she'll remain in DCF custody and continue treatment until at least September. That's when she turns 18.

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Quote :

The police were banging on the doors and the windows of her home while she cowered in the closet, a 17-year-old girl recounted. She remembered clutching her phone, crying, calling her mother.

“I was scared,” she wrote of the experience.

It may sound like a drug raid, or the climax of a movie. But in fact, the police, along with representatives of Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families, had come to take the girl for chemotherapy.

The girl, identified in court papers as Cassandra C., learned that she had Hodgkin’s lymphoma in September. Ever since, she and her mother have been entangled in a legal battle with the state of Connecticut over whether Cassandra, who is still a minor, can refuse the chemotherapy that doctors say is likely to save her life. Without it, the girl’s doctors say, she will die.

“It’s poison,” Cassandra’s mother, Jackie Fortin, said of chemotherapy in an interview on Friday. “Does it kill the cancer? I guess they say it does kill the cancer. But it also kills everything else in your body.”

Ms. Fortin continued, “It’s her body, and she should not be forced to do anything with her body.”

Doctors said in court documents that they had explained to Cassandra that while chemotherapy had side effects, serious risks were minimal.

On Thursday, Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled that Cassandra had had the chance to show at trial that she was a “mature minor,” competent to make her own medical decisions, but had failed to do so. And so the chemotherapy treatments, which had already begun, will continue.

Cassandra was a healthy, artistic 16-year-old before the illness was diagnosed, her mother said. She liked to paint and draw, mostly abstract pieces, but also cartoons and silly things. She had a paper route and a retail job. She had a tattoo on her back of the character Simba from “The Lion King,” the namesake of her cherished, yellow tabby cat. She had been home-schooled since the 10th grade.

Then she found a lump on the right side of her neck. She went to her pediatrician, and after rounds of tests that dragged on for months, doctors at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford told her she had Hodgkin’s lymphoma. According to court documents, her doctors said that with chemotherapy, and sometimes radiation, patients had an 85 percent chance of being disease-free after five years.

Ms. Fortin, of Windsor Locks, near Hartford, said that she and her daughter had wanted a second opinion and a fresh battery of tests. They had begun looking for a new team of doctors to verify the diagnosis, and hoped to find alternatives to chemotherapy.

But the state said in court documents that Ms. Fortin had not brought her daughter to some medical appointments and was “not attending to Cassandra’s medical needs in a timely basis.”

The Department of Children and Families took temporary custody of the girl in late October 2014. Two weeks later, she was allowed to go home, so long as she underwent chemotherapy. But after two days of treatment, she ran away from home.

“Although I didn’t have any intention of proceeding with the chemotherapy once I returned home, I endured two days of it,” Cassandra wrote in an essay published in The Hartford Courant this week. “Two days was enough; mentally and emotionally, I could not go through with chemotherapy.”

About a week after running away, Cassandra came home. In her essay, she wrote that she had returned because she was afraid her disappearance might land her mother in jail. In December, she was hospitalized.

“I was strapped to a bed by my wrists and ankles and sedated,” she wrote in the essay, which was accompanied by a photo of her in the hospital. “I woke up in the recovery room with a port surgically placed in my chest. I was outraged and felt completely violated.”

“How long is a person actually supposed to live, and why?” she wrote. “I care about the quality of my life, not just the quantity.”

In a statement this week, the Department of Children and Families said it preferred to work with families, not compel them, but had no choice in some cases.

“When experts — such as the several physicians involved in this case — tell us with certainty that a child will die as a result of leaving a decision up to a parent,” the statement said, “then the Department has a responsibility to take action.”

Cassandra’s legal battle is not unprecedented, but it is unusual, said Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum, director of the Division of Law, Ethics, and Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons.

“Nobody likes to overrule a parent and a child, particularly when they are in agreement,” he said.

Courts tend to be cautious about ordering treatment over a patient’s objections, Dr. Appelbaum said, and whether they do so often involves several factors, including the seriousness of the condition, the child’s maturity, and concern about whether the child’s opinions are being influenced by a parent or other third party. Several of those variables appear to have figured in this case, he said.

But Ms. Fortin’s lawyer, James P. Sexton, said that Cassandra was only months shy of her 18th birthday, when the decision about her care would be hers to make. By then, the chemotherapy will most likely be over.

Today she is confined to the hospital. Her communications are limited, as are her visits with her mother. Mr. Sexton said the family would continue to fight in court.

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Those articles make it even worse and I just can't imagine how she felt being ripped from her home and mother.   

Sure Chemotherapy may cure her, but she is clearly able to think for herself and make decisions for HER body. I wish there was more they could do for her because she will remember this for the rest of her life, if she lives.

Quote :

In November, doctors alerted DCF to their suspicion of medical neglect, stating concerns over a number of missed appointments, as well as Ms. Fortin’s stopping of an in-progress biopsy, and an “unusual” reaction to the diagnosis in which Ms. Fortin criticized doctors and raised questions about whether the tissue had been Cassandra’s or not.

DCF took temporary custody of Cassandra in October, but Cassandra was allowed home after she agreed to court-mandated treatment. She received two rounds of chemotherapy, but ran away from home to avoid any further treatment. A court then removed Cassandra from the home and gave DCF control over all Cassandra’s medical decisions.

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Quote :

“I think the most compelling argument in her favor is that there is no perfectly bright line that distinguishes when you’re an adult and deemed competent by the law, and when you’re not,” said Klau.
Still, the Department of Children and Families has the law on its side. According to court papers, DCF took custody of Cassandra after Connecticut Children’s Medical Center said the mother and daughter were neglecting the teen’s medical needs.
“She was skipping medical appointments and fighting with the doctors over the diagnosis and treatment,” said Klau.
But Fortin plans on fighting those claims. She explained that she feels like too much of the process has been far out of her family’s control.
“I’ve raised her for this long and had no problems with her,” said Fortin. “And all of a sudden she’s been diagnosed with cancer and we’re both being punished.”

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Quote :

"Hodgkin's Lymphoma is almost for certain a death sentence and the treatment is almost a certain cure,” Thomas said. “It's not experimental, not developmental.'

Thomas said the case could have gone a different direction if there were more facts supporting what's called the mature minor doctrine, which is the court's way of saying based on the circumstances, the juvenile is mature enough to make a decision like this.

"What really hurt the back part of her case, she went to court told the court and said she would take the treatment, went home and then ran away,” Thomas said.

Legal experts don't think that's realistic or practical for the case to make it to U.S. Supreme Court because it would take more than a year to get there. By then Cassandra will be 18 years old and make her own decision about her treatment.

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She is a minor by legal standards until she turns 18. The government looked into considering her being a "mature minor" and a panel decided that she did not meet the standards therefore she was incapable of making her own legal choices.

I do think that what has happened is horrible but I agree with the state. People are making it seem as if the state is in the wrong by taking her into their care. The fact is that she and her mother both agreed to look into alternate forms of treatment and did not follow through with it. The mother was irate with various medical professionals and she did not take her daughter to appointments that were necessary (not just chemo but well appointments to monitor the progress of her daughters condition) The girl agreed at one point to undergo the chemo treatments and she was released to her mother, then the child ran away from home. That is one of the main reasons for the court deciding that she was not a mature minor. In many states (I'm not actually for sure of Connecticut law and I'm not going to sort threw tons of legal notes) it is illegal for minor children to run away. When they are caught they can be either put into juvenile detention or in foster care. She was forcefully taken from her home because she is at this point considered a flight risk and that is why she is now being held at a hospital.

Her disease is highly treatable, but she is almost guaranteed to die without it. In her open letters she has not mentioned of an alternate treatment. I haven't seen anything from her mother stating various other treatments in consideration either. If this had been the case then I am sure that the state would have taken it into consideration or at least heard the idea out.

There are just so many blurred lines with age honestly, liberals scream and shouted when teenagers of 18 or 19 are shot and murdered by the police... oh they are just boys, teenagers. But with this case this girl is obviously an adult in their opinion when she is in fact the minor and a child.

Is there any way that the state could have been right with this situation? Honestly. Right now they are facing backlash and rage because they intervened to save a minor...from death, but if they had done nothing and she would have died (which she most likely would have) and the situation came to light, showing how the mother didn't seek proper treatments or at least take the girl to her appointments and stopped procedures while they were happening and the doctors had notified the state and the state did nothing...well everyone would still be pissed. The state failed another child... the mother would most likely be looked as a villain in this scenario and everyone would still be mad. So no matter what they state did, they lose... their choice wasn't right.

While I understand and agree with some of the points you are making, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] , I still don't think it's right. She is most likely going to suffer from the trauma once she is released causing more issues. How many sessions of Chemotherapy will she need and how long will it take? I have no idea. I've only ever seen my Aunt go through it and she still passed away. If she is not better by the time she is 18, she can very well stop treatment. Then they wasted that time and resources on someone who didn't want it.

I still think the state is wrong. If she was pregnant and wanted to get an abortion, she would be allowed and no one would say a damn word. It's her body, her choice. Of course the court found she wasn't mature enough to make her own decision, and I say that sarcastically.

It just frustrates me. 

Oh I agree Rach, she will most likely suffer from trauma after this is all said and done with, this is a very traumatic situation. I'm not saying that it was okay for the state to take her in the way that they did, from what she described it was quite horrible.

The thing is, this is what our country is coming to. They are now stepping up and trying to make sure that children get the health care that they need and deserve. Everything is now electronic and is easier to track then it once was. Any physicians office or hospital in America can look up my children through their ss number and see all medical care they have received or that they need. I actually got a letter from the CDC in early December about Javen's eyes. He had a routine eye test done at school and he failed it. They turned it into a state and sent me a paper that had to be signed by an eye dr and turned back into the state. Of course I was already on top of his eyes and he actually had another appointment that very next day to have his eyes tested again and the script for his glasses changed but they didn't know that and the state was preparing to step in if need be. This is just what is becoming the norm. And it's because SO many parents truly neglect their children's needs and health.

I just read this:
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& http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/01/08/375659085/can-connecticut-force-a-teenage-girl-to-undergo-chemotherapy


I don't get the impression that the mother is a fanatic, and I'm still genuinely disgusted by the Government doing this.

This is a human rights violation!!! I have much to say but need to let it stew in my brain for a bit. I am absolutely sickened for this poor girl and her mother!

epiod wrote:

She is a minor by legal standards until she turns 18.  The government looked into considering her being a "mature minor" and a panel decided that she did not meet the standards therefore she was incapable of making her own legal choices.  

I do think that what has happened is horrible but I agree with the state.  People are making it seem as if the state is in the wrong by taking her into their care.  The fact is that she and her mother both agreed to look into alternate forms of treatment and did not follow through with it.  The mother was irate with various medical professionals and she did not take her daughter to appointments that were necessary (not just chemo but well appointments to monitor the progress of her daughters condition) The girl agreed at one point to undergo the chemo treatments and she was released to her mother, then the child ran away from home.  That is one of the main reasons for the court deciding that she was not a mature minor.  In many states (I'm not actually for sure of Connecticut law and I'm not going to sort threw tons of legal notes) it is illegal for  minor children to run away.  When they are caught they can be either put into juvenile detention or in foster care.  She was forcefully taken from her home because she is at this point considered a flight risk and that is why she is now being held at a hospital.  

Her disease is highly treatable, but she is almost guaranteed to die without it.  In her open letters she has not mentioned of an alternate treatment.  I haven't seen anything from her mother stating various other treatments in consideration either.  If this had been the case then I am sure that the state would have taken it into consideration or at least heard the idea out.

There are just so many blurred lines with age honestly,  liberals scream and shouted when teenagers of 18 or 19 are shot and murdered by the police... oh they are just boys, teenagers.  But with this case this girl is obviously an adult in their opinion when she is in fact the minor and a child.

Is there any way that the state could have been right with this situation?  Honestly.  Right now they are facing backlash and rage because they intervened to save a minor...from death, but if they had done nothing and she would have died (which she most likely would have) and the situation came to light, showing how the mother didn't seek proper treatments or at least take the girl to her appointments and stopped procedures while they were happening and the doctors had notified the state and the state did nothing...well everyone would still be pissed.  The state failed another child... the mother would most likely be looked as  a villain in this scenario  and everyone would still be mad.  So no matter what they state did, they lose... their choice wasn't right.  

As much as it sucks and this really is sad that she can't make her own mind up because I think she is old enough to, I agree with you.

Freebird wrote:

This is a human rights violation!!! I have much to say but need to let it stew in my brain for a bit. I am absolutely sickened for this poor girl and her mother!

YES! ^
It truly is a violation of her rights.

Sometimes the fucking courts and Government think they can just do any fucking thing they want with people and their lives. I am going to sign the damn petition.

The government needs to stay out of healthcare! I'm appalled by the story--she has the right to refuse chemo. I'm also appalled by the statement on the tag that she was "indoctrinated by her homeschooling mother"...... so she wasn't in the government run education system..she was/is receiving a better education at home. There is absolutely nothing wrong with homeschooling or the mothers that make that choice...may have been the girl's choice, we don't know AND it has nothing to do with the issue.

This disgusts me on every level. The government has taken way too much power and they need to be stopped NOW!! Chemotherapy is not the be all and end all for cancer treatment, it is poison!! As it kills the cancer it also kills a lot of healthy cells in the body and can sometimes cause death on its own. NOBODY has the right to make the choice for another. In this case the child is a minor so the only person, people, who have any authority over her should be her parents. I am so angry just thinking about this, what happened to the land of the free?? Freedom is an illusion people! Government is a dictatorship hidden behind the so called voters. How many times have you seen the majority overridden by government who go ahead and do whatever they want regardless of what the people want? UGH, I am ranting now but, if you hadn't noticed, I feel very strongly about this.