Can't pay for your child's cancer treatment? Your child can die! Can pay but don't want chemo?

[ck4829]

That's neglect!

"Ray Hindrichs wandered the hospital halls in anguish while his wife faced countless appointments, procedures and checkups for breast cancer.

While Hindrichs waited, he found the children’s cancer ward.

He played with the children and learned from their parents and social workers what they needed and desired most.

“I found out parents were stretched to no end, and they weren’t poor to start off, but they’d lost everything to care for their kids,” says Hindrichs, 67.

Sometimes a child’s parents couldn’t afford a procedure that might save the child’s life, or at least extend it.

Other times they couldn’t buy each other Christmas presents because they were so cash-strapped from the staggering cost of treatment."

http://www.news-press.com/article/20090504/NEWS0108/90504035/1075

"A 20 month old West Haven boy has a rare blood disorder and needs a bone marrow transplant.

Michael Clark is not your typical toddler who loves to play. Since shortly after birth, his young life has not been easy.

They were symptoms of a rare blood disorder, that baffled doctors at the start. Anthony says doctors were stunned, and told him and Michael's mother, Melissa Anderson, they didn't know and were not sure what Michael had.

Now, Michael's doctors at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital have narrowed it down to a form of aplastic anemia.

If you'd like to help Michael, an account has been set up for donations at New Alliance Bank under Michael Clark's Benefit Fund.

There are also a number of bone marrow donor drives in Connecticut scheduled in March to help patients like Michael. For more information on future bone marrow drives, contact the National Marrow Donor Program at 860-334-6983."

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/health_wtnh_toddler_needs_marrow_transplant_200903051535

But wait hold on, the government does intervene... when parents CAN pay for treatment but don't want to pay for treatment.

"A Minnesota judge has ruled that a 13-year-old cancer patient whose parents want to treat him with "alternative medicine" must seek conventional medical treatment for their son.

In a 58-page ruling Friday, Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg found that Daniel Hauser has been "medically neglected" and is in need of child protection services.

Rodenberg said Daniel will stay in the custody of his parents, but Colleen and Anthony Hauser have until May 19 to get an updated chest X-ray for their son and select an oncologist."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090515/ap_on_he_me/us_med_forced_chemo

So, maybe poor people should just say they want to give their kids alternative treatment instead of losing every dollar they have on chemotherapy and the government will step in and say the kids can not be refused medical treatment?

[bunnies]

1. Excellent. Frigging. Point.

K&R. Outrageous. :nuke:

[alarimer]

2. Alternative treatment DOES NOT FUCKING WORK.

Denying life-saving chemotherapy means YOUR KID WILL DIE. And that is the definition of child neglect/endangerment. Parents who do this, or who allow their minor child to do it, belong in jail and deserve to have their child placed in foster care so that he gets the treatment he needs to live.

Fuck all those alternative medicine advocates. Your way is the way of death. Hauser has an disease that is pretty easy to cure if caught early with conventional treatments. Anything else and he WILL die. Science-based medicine, as opposed to woo-woo bullshit, is the way to go.

[bunnies]

4. I think youve missed the point.

The government has no problem with people dying due to a lack of treatment they cant afford. But they DO have a problem with parents who chose not to get the treatment.

Its not an argument about whether or not alternative treatments work. Its an example of the extreme hypocrisy re: health care.

[Zodiak]

6. I agree that many alternative medicines do not work

However, out of respect for your fellow DUers who do place value on alternative medicine, I think it best to not refer to alternative medicine as "woo-woo bullshit". It's over the top, and will never get anyone to listen to you.

Just state it doesn't work and back up the assertion with evidence.

If you advocate for science, then do so without demonstrating an emotional need to denigrate the other side....such a position is not becoming in one who defends science, and as a "science person", I cringe when people defend science with emotion. Science doesn't need pejoratives to defend itself.

[Zodiak]

3. Notice that in both cases, the desired outcome is more $$ for the healthcare industry?

That is not by accident. Practically all of our "scoietal norms" are meant to benefit some rich bastard somewhere.

"Health" is not even a consideration. "Just give us the fucking money, peasant!"

[backtoblue]

5. You're absolutely right

It's all about the money, even when it comes to our children. Screw the bast*ards who want to make a profit off of saving a child's life. (***spitting***)

[Zodiak]

7. This, of course, more applies to the kid whose parents cannot afford healthcare

In that particular case, if the kid can't pay for the profit, his/her life is not saved. It's far worse if you are an adult who cannot pay.

No one's health should be dependent on another's profit.

As far as the case that hit the news today....scientifically and medically I agree with the judge, but not constitutionally.