WHO OWNS YOUR CHILD?
PART 1 of 2

 

 

 

 

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, DO
July 25, 2006
NewsWithViews.com

This case should send a deep chill through the heart of every parent.

After he had endured three months of ineffective treatments last year for Hodgkin�s lymphoma, Abraham Cherrix rejected his doctor�s recommendation to go through a second round of chemotherapy. He chose instead to seek out more natural, nontoxic methods using alternative medicine.

After doing his research, he traveled with his father to Bio-Medical Center in Tijuana, Mexico. His treatments included liquid herbal supplements and a sugar-free, organic diet consisting mostly of fresh fruits and vegetables. When they returned home, they spoke to Abraham�s oncologist, Dr. Rebecca Byrd, to keep her involved in his care. Wanting no part of their choices, she promptly declared their decision irrational, labeled it �medical neglect� and called the Accomack County Department of Social Services.

Within days, the county Social Services personnel had been awarded partial custody of Abraham and, at 5:20pm on Friday, July 21, Judge Jesse E. Demps ruled that Abraham�s parents were neglectful. They were ordered to take their child to the hospital on Tuesday morning, July 25, and sign papers authorizing doctors to provide the treatment that they � as medical professionals � deem necessary. If they refused to do so, they could lose custody complete custody of their child, and quite possibly, put their other four children at risk as well.

This case caught the attention of the national media because it strikes at the heart of every parent who should be asking the following questions: �Who really has control over my child?� �When is a child mature enough to participate in his own healthcare decisions?� �How did we get to the place where doctors, judges and social workers have more rights than parents over the healthcare decisions of a child?�

Becoming an adult

In most cases, the age when a person acquires all the rights and responsibilities of being an adult is 18 years old. However, there are circumstances in which a child can be considered a legal adult before the assigned age of majority. For example, Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts, New York and Utah allow marriage at age 16 with parental consent. You can legally get married in Georgia, Mississippi, Michigan, and North Carolina with parental consent if you are 15 years of age. Texas permits 14 year olds to get married with parental consent, and New Hampshire will even allow 13 year old females to marry with parental consent and court permission.[1]

In six states (Connecticut, Hawaii, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington) and Washington DC, a 16 year old has the right to get an abortion without consent or notification of the parent. Thirty-four other states have a mechanism in place to bypass the parental consent or notice requirement.[2]

A 16 year old can hold a full time job, travel outside the country, drive a car, and have full responsibility for someone�s children while baby sitting. A 16 year old can even be tried as an adult for murder.

But if you are 16, you have no right to say what type of treatment is forced upon you by the medical system, even if your parents support your right to refuse. Cherrix explained to the press, "This is my body that I'm supposed to take care of. I should have the right to tell someone what I want to do with this body. I studied. I did research. I came to this conclusion that the chemotherapy was not the route I wanted to take."[3] His maturity carried no weight in the court of law and held no authority with the medical judge, his doctor.

The Cherrix case is one in a series of recent medical travesties where judges, doctors and the State have forced medical treatments on children against the concerns of their parents. In January, 2006, 13-year-old Katie Wernecke was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. When Katie's parents, Michelle and Edward Wernecke, refused radiation treatments for their daughter, Texas Children Services intervened. Katie was placed in foster care for four months and her mother was arrested on charges of interfering with child custody.[4]

Early this month (July, 2006), the parents of a 9-month old boy, Riley Rogers, were advised that the child needed emergency surgery for a kidney problem. The mother disagreed and smuggled her son out of the hospital. Several days later, he was found and sent back to the hospital; the mother was charged with second-degree kidnapping and sent to jail. As it turned out, the surgery was not an �emergency� after all.[5]

Americans are dying on the on the other side of the world in a �fight for freedom.� And yet, the freedom to choose vitamins, organic food and herbs over toxic, potentially deadly treatments is considered a crime. The total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is more than 780,000 per year, making the medical system the leading cause of death and injury in the U.S.[6] Whose freedoms should we be fighting for?

These stories should enrage every parent. Who really �owns� your child? Who owns your body? Americans needs to declare their freedom from grip of conventional medicine and its authoritarian tactics. For part 2 click below.

Continued Part 2: Parent Rights and the Foundation for Medical Neglect

Footnotes:

1. Wikipedia encyclopedia
2. Laws Requiring Parental Consent or Notification for Minors' Abortions
3. "Virginia teen fights for right to pick Hodgkin's treatment." Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY. July 11, 2006
4. "State-sponsored medical terrorism: Texas authorities arrest parents, kidnap their teenage daughter, and force her through chemotherapy against her will" by Alexis Black. Jan. 3, 2006.
5. "Baby undergoes surgery despite mom's worries." by M. Alexander Otto. The News Tribune. July 2nd, 2006.
6. "Death by Medicine," by Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD

� 2006 Sherri Tenpenny - All Rights Reserved