Update: Starchild Abraham Cherrix

I have tried to read everything I could find using google blog search and technorati and here's what I've learned so far:

• this post seems to be the best overview of the legal history of the case.
• Thankfully Starchild Abraham Cherrix goes by Abraham.
• There are no reports anywhere that the parents have any history of abuse or neglect of this child. (Unless naming your child Starchild is abuse.) As far as I can find, this is the first time that this family has had any reason to be reported to the authorities.
• There is no information out there about the treatment details or the survival rates of the chemo this child or young man (depending on how you look at it) had declined.
• Last time he took this treatment it made him so weak that he could not walk on his own.
• Abraham has, what seems to me to be a legitimate, concern that the chemo could kill him this time.

The more I read the more I feel that a major injustice and major invasion of the government into personal life. Oh, before you ask, no Abraham isn't on hospice. He is seeking aggressive treatment of a kind. I am blogging because right-to-die, right-to-live, and right-to-choose topics are huge in the hospice community. This case could very well have far reaching implications for the hospice community. The next time I get a referral for a 16 year old child, do I need to call child protective services because the parents are allowing the child to forgo aggressive treatment? This case makes the question legit.

Does a 16 year old have the right to decide to decline chemo? Do his parents have that right? Surely, a social worker doesn't have that right? How about the doctor; does he have the right to force a patient to take treatment?

I thought I knew the answers to those questions. I have always believed that being an American gave me those freedoms. Guess I'll have to wait for a higher court to determine if my understanding of freedom was wrong.

My prayers are with everyone involved in this case. I'm sure the social worker, judge, and everyone else involved wishes this would have happened on someone else's watch. There is no doubt that the Cherrix family didn't want to be a part of any of this. I assume the best in people, so I believe that everyone here is doing what they think is best. May God be with them all.

Update: July 22

Abraham and his father were on the Today show. Watch it here.

After watching the interview I am more convinced that this is not a family of moonbats. I'm not a fan of alternative medicine, and doubt that this is the best treatment that Abraham could get. I do think that this is a young man (not a boy or a child) who had thought this through. He should be allowed to seek the treatment he wants. I feel even more strongly that his parents should have the decision making ability if Abraham doesn't. Parents are the guardians for their children, and nothing has happened in this family to warrant taking that right from the parents. I truly hoped that I would find that these people were crazy or abusive to their children so that the governments actions would be justified. It's just not the case.

Unless there is some big secret out there, this seems a clear case of the government sticking its nose where it doesn't belong. Let this family get on with dealing with this horrible situation.