The state of Connecticut has removed a 17 year old girl (known as Cassandra C.) from her parents and is forcing her to receive chemotherapy, according to news reports.
Oddly, no women’s rights adovcates are expressing concern that the state is telling this minor what to do with her body.
The girl was reportedly diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer in September. Doctors suggested chemotherapy but the girl with the support of her mother refused that treatment. That decision instigated the state’s Department of Children and Families to step in and force the teen to receive chemotherapy treatment by going to court to become the girl’s custodians. They ordered the mother to cooperate. She apparently did but then Cassandra C. ran away from home and refused treatment.
Then the state took full custodial care of the girl and will make all her decisions for her.
Cassandra’s mother is suing. “It’s a question of fundamental constitutional rights–the right to have a say over what happens to your body–and the right to say to the government ‘you can’t control what happens to my body,’” her attorney, Michael S. Taylor, said.
Now, there are many things unknown here. What are her survival chances with/without treatment? Is she seeking alternative treatments? I don’t know. But one interesting here is that if Cassandra C. were going to get an abortion then the state would fully support her making her own medical decisions but when it comes to all other things, the state knows best.
