I don't disagree. But for some reason someone has brought this case, and the judge is acting on what they perceive as the best interests of the child.

Who says he would die? And did they say they'd be going to Mexico? There are many, many, alternatives to chemo in the US.

It is not an easy case and my initial reaction was in line with yours. Where do you draw the line? Should we be forcing all Amish women give birth in modern neonatal units? Should the state take custody of obese kids? Should smokers be banned from having children at all?

What role should the state play in keeping kids safe from their own parents? Parents that are loving, concerned and looking out for the well being of their child's health and soul no matter how misguided they may be.

Death is the outcome for untreated Hodgkins. From the reports here he is quite far along with the disease and the probability of his recovering without treatment is essentially nil.

and yes, his parents did say they have taken him to Mexico and that their treament plan for him is the organic diet.

I know I shouldn't post this but I just can't not. I'm really not trying to start a fight, Moonie.

Given that the US is 36th on the list of infant mortality, meaning that 35 countries have better survival rates for babies than we do, I'd say not. The top countries have a birth system completely run by midwives and a huge number of homebirths. My dislike for our sub-standard American medical system is intense.

I saw this on the news. They were seeking treatment in Mexico.

In an effort to help SCA and myself come to grip with why this case is upsetting, I was posting those concepts as extreme examples of where government interference in our lives could lead us. Evil examples and certainly not as a suggested course of action. So I don't think any fights are brewing over this between us. Unless of course you do think the government should get more involved with our personal heath care decisions. If that's the case then bring it on :evil:

I don't feel qualified to comment on the proper course for this specific case. Nor do I know anything about Hodgkin's in general. And I should add that out of the people I know that treated their cancer without chemo, only one went to Mexico, and she also got traditional surgeries here in the states.

But most any kind of malignant cancer will kill you if you don't treat it. That's not to say that people that seek alternatives are just marching to the grave. And a cancer diet is much much more than just an organic diet. I eat an organic diet, and it wouldn't cure me of cancer if I had it. It's a complex system of certain foods eaten at certain times of day that takes into account the individual and all systems of the body and the chemical reactions that affect them.

Many herbs can do the exact same thing that synthetic medicines can do, but better and with fewer side effects. The US government is only starting to research it, but Germany has been doing placebo controlled double blind studies on herbs for two decades. It's not as if it's some quack on a beanbag burning incense and willing cancer away.

Good, and I understood that. But being that the atrocious birth system in our country bothers me a lot, I just couldn't not post those facts.

I also wanted to say that if I had cancer, I would probably do both conventional and alternative therapies, so it's not as though I think traditional medicine is useless or anything.