For a moment, just imagine you are at the centre of this terrible predicament...
Your 11 year-old son has leukemia. He has already undergone an aggressive round of chemotherapy and radiation treatment which nearly cost him his life. When your little boy is up for his second round of chemo, he vehemently refuses to go through with it and instead, pleads with you to allow him to die peacefully at home. According to his doctors, your son would have a fair chance of beating the cancer if he underwent the chemo.
What would you do?
Sadly, a father in Hamilton was faced with this very dilemma and chose to follow his son's wishes and discontinue his cancer therapy. As a result, The CBC reports that child welfare took custody of the boy to ensure he would undergo the treatment. According to Dominic Verticchio, the executive director of Hamilton's Children's Aid Society, an Ontario court ruled in conjunction with provincial legislation stating that it is mandatory for children to receive necessary care and treatment for their health and well being.
The boy's family is outraged. Granted limited visitation rights during his son's treatment, the Hamilton father claims that doctors initially only gave the boy a 20 percent chance of surviving the chemotherapy. If this round of treatment was successful, the father goes on to say that his son would have to undergo further radiation therapy and a bone marrow transplant in which he would only be given a 50 percent survival rate following the entire ordeal.
What do you think?
