hey, he's a minor thus the state has interest. period.

Are the parents not paying for the treatment? I'm sure the govt isn't paying for some alternative treatment. It seems that the govt wants to pay for the boy's chemo. If that's the case, then saving taxpayer money isn't what it's about, is it. I still wonder how they're going to force the boy to have chemo if he's uncooperative. I guess they'll have to knock him out first.

The fact that the kid cannot read, reinforces my view that he is no position to judge whether a chemotherapist or whack-job vitamin doctor is the best alternative. If the state can remove kids from homes for physical abuse, it should be able to remove a kid from a home when parents use capital punishment. If the state can coerce a woman to keep a fetus inside her for the health of a potential citizen, it's no reach to protect the kid from a nutty mother when he's actually a citizen.

you are correct.

however (oddly enough) the anti abortion crowd probably is also the "parents rights" crowd, inconsistently enough.

The question is this. IF they refuse chemo now and try their own "treatment" and the boy gets worse and they now decide to undergo conventional treatment, what if what is available at that time is more expensive than if they had undergone chemo at this time?

Think about it in this sense. If at this time, I refuse to take the simple step of treating a small wound on my leg and later on, I decide to go to the doctor and he says the leg has to be amputate and it costs more to treat it later than now, who pays?

just as an aside, you seem to be really obsessed with the cost of things.

i.e. money.

just an observation.

I live in a world where resources are not free for the picking.

Just wow. Great sentiment. :rolleyes:

My 6.5yoS has Down syndrome, it would be a tremendous loss to us and our town. There are far bigger resource "wasters" in our society.

And none of the resident bleeding hearts came to the kid's defense either.

I think many people share Skippy's attitude towards the mentally handicapped. Add to that the power of the government to inject a child with toxic chemicals against the parents wishes, a future of economic uncertainty and national bankruptcy, and there is cause for concern for those who end up in the "care" of the state.

Wow dude, reign it in. That kind of comment displays a complete lack of intelligence or compassion. How would you feel if you had a child with learning disabilities and someone started spouting such hateful nonsense?

Reaching new lows here on OD.....Now were bashing developmentally disadvantaged children....

Personally, I think that those with no compassion for the mentally handicapped are themselves more defective than the ones they disparage. I would take the attributes of love, joy, compassion, loyalty, etc, that are demonstrated by handicapped people over the analytical dollar and cents views spewed forth from the bigots.

As offensively as Skippy put it, what he said is true. "Developmentally disadvantaged"/"mentally handicapped"/"learning disabilities"/"slow"/"retarded", no matter what you call them, it all means the same thing.

Which is more productive, caring for a "disabled" person that will never be more than a chair/bed warmer from infancy to geriatricy or starting over right away and producing a child healthy from birth?

Guess that depends on what your priorities are. If you are willing to sacrifice your humanity for a 'perfect' child.....

Just remember this, Albert Einstein was thought to be retarded up through age 10.....guess we should have offed him when we had the chance.....

It is not like this is a 50/50 thing. Kids with this disease have a 95% death rate if they don't do the chemo. If they do the chemo they have a 90% survival rate. Not 100%, but it is not 100% that I will make it home tonight and not get in a car accident on the way.

The kid is a minor. The parents are not making good decisions. Seems simple enough to me.

"Humanity" used to be like the rest of nature, survival of the fittest. Medical technology has allowed us to fulfill the instinct to "live" and "protect the family" at all costs, even if the cost hurts themselves and others.

If he had stayed in Germany and the Nazis had their way, no doubt they would have. Einstein had minor problems with speech and reading, he was still brilliant from a very young age.