Guinea Pig: 9-Year-Old Must Take a Dangerous Drug, State Says
What if your child had cancer? You took him to a conventional physician. He got better. The child shows no traces of cancer.
Then the state steps in and says you have not done enough. Your child must be given an experimental drug not yet approved by the Food & Drug Administration. There is some evidence that the drug in fact causes some forms of cancer.
You protest. You are then threatened with jail. Your child will be taken from you by the state and given the experimental drug.
What would you do?
This family knew what to do. It contacted the Home School Legal Defense Fund.
According to the head of the organization, “the Michigan Department of Human Services has filed suit to force the parents to administer the chemicals to their son even though he’s been clean of cancer on scans over the past year. In addition, lower courts twice have ruled against the demands of state agency officials.” The agency has appealed to the Court of Appeals.
This would bankrupt most families. If the agency loses, the parents would be stuck with huge legal fees. Fortunately, the HSLDA is paying these fees.
What if this were you?
Further, the treatment demanded by the state, which insisted that prosecutors bring a medical neglect case against the parents, is not guaranteed to help and not even guaranteed to be safe.
The doctors insisted that they be allowed to administer the drugs. Chemotherapy is required. Also radiation.
Jacob’s parents “begged the doctors to make an individual diagnosis, rather than simply following unbending standards. But the doctors were steadfast. All children with this cancer needed multiple rounds of these drugs – regardless of PET scan results, the doctors contended,” HSLDA reported.The parents refused, and the doctors contacted Child Protective Services to ask that the parents be charged.
When the local CPS agency and prosecuting attorney refused, the doctors called the state to pressure the agency to file charges.
The treating physician said the drugs being required are safe and FDA-approved. It turns out she was wrong. No matter. The boy must remain a guinea pig.
The trial court said otherwise. So, the state has appealed the case.
This is America today. This is “the land of the free.” Let’s not be naïve about what we are facing.
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Published on March 21, 2012. The original is here.
The case was dismissed when the parents consented to chemotherapy after the cancer returned later in the year. That is to say, the state did not lose.