A Connecticut teen and her mother are embroiled in litigation with the state over forced chemotherapy treatment.
The 17-year-old, identified in court documents only as Cassandra C., has Hodgkin's lymphoma, and does not want to undergo the treatment recommended by doctors at Connecticut Children's Medical Center (CCMC).
Cassandra, with her mother's support, refused the cancer treatment because she believes the chemotherapy would be as damaging, if not more, than the cancer.
"She knows the long-term effects of having chemo, what it does to your organs, what it does to your body," Cassandra's mother, Jackie Fortin, told the Hartford Courant.
"She may not be able to have children after this because it affects everything in your body. It not only kills cancer, it kills everything in your body."
Cassandra's case was reported to Connecticut's Department of Children and Families (DCF) by CCMC in November, and she was temporarily placed in the department's custody.
The teen was returned to her mother with the instruction that she was to complete chemotherapy, and underwent two rounds before running away.
When Cassandra returned home, she again refused chemo. Fortin's attorney, Michael S Taylor, said that is Cassandra's right.
"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,'" he told Fox CT.
"This is her decision, and she's very intelligent enough to make this decision on her own," Fortin said.
"She does not want poisons in her body, and she does not want to be forced through the state or the government to force her to do such a thing. And right now, at this moment, she is being forced chemo upon her against her wish."
At a trial hearing, DCF was given authority over Cassandra's medical decisions, but Taylor contended that the state should determine if Cassandra is mature enough to make her own choice. An appeal was filed with the Connecticut Supreme Court, and the case will be heard on Thursday.
