Page 87 Diekema, Parental Refusals of Medical Treatment: the Harm Principle

as Threshold for State Intervention

Within this section of the book Diekema states that the best interest
principal should not be considered when considering state intervention in a medical
context. On page 89 Diekema offers a different principal that he thinks would be
more beneficial to deciding weather to have a state intervention for a child patient.
When talking about the harm principal Diekema only talks about physical harm or
death. Though I do think that physical harm should be considered when deciding on
state intervention for a minor shouldnt psychological harm be considered as well?
On page 91 Colin Newmarks case against state intervention is described. In this
case state intervention is not provided based on the fact that if Colin got the
treatment he would only have a 40% chance at life afterword. This entire case does
not take into consideration the psychological struggles Colin will have to go through
both with and without the chemotherapy.


Page 93, Hord: Do Parents have the Right to Refuse Standard Treatment for
their Child?
This Case, starting on page 93, involves 7-year-old boy is diagnosed with ALL
(acute lymphoblastic leukemia) and his parents agreed to a 3.5-year chemotherapy
treatment regimen. After 3 months of treatment, his parents took the boy off
chemotherapy because they were worried that chemotherapy would damage their
sons immune system and cause other long-term problems(93). The parents then
consulted with a family medicine physician who was certified in holistic medicine.
Though the first physician did try to override the parents decision the courts ruled
in favor of the parents. After the boy was put onto holistic medicines he fell into a
relapse. My question is should the boys parents be forced to put their own son back
onto a chemotherapy regiment? I think that because the parents originally agreed to
the Chemotherapy treatment that they should have to continue it after the holistic
approach did not work.


Page 96, Catlin: The Dilemma of Jehovahs Witness Children Who Need Blood to
survive.
This part of the texts talks about the case of a 6-year-old boy whose parents
were both Jehovahs Witnesses. The 6-year-old boy had a critical case of sickle cell, a
disease that is usually treated by giving the patient blood transfusions. Because of
their religious beliefs Jehovahs Witnesss are not allowed to have any blood
transfusion and so the parents tried to refuse treatment. Unfortunately this made
the physicians have to get involved with legislation to have the refusal of the parents
overturned. I completely agree with the actions taken by the physicians regarding
the blood transfusions but I want to know if the doctors helped the parents look for
alternate treatment. The boy came into the hospital in critical condition so I
understand the time was short. But couldnt a physician have sat with the parents
and explained why other options were not going to be plausible because of the dire
situation of their own son? I think having a doctor try to help them solve their
dilemma instead of the hospital telling the patents It will take two hours to type
and cross match the blood. At the end of two hours, if alternative arrangements have
not been made, we will transfuse your child(97) would have kept the situation
calmer in the end.


Rosam: Reply to Anita Catlin.
I agree with the idea that Anita Catlin should have also looked at the side of a
Jehovahs Witness. Admitting that blood transfusions do have a risk of certain health
issues once given is a way of looking at a case in a sincerely neutral way. Eugene
Rosam presents that the parents could have looked elsewhere for treatment. If this
is true why didnt the parents ask for another doctors opinion on the situation? I
think that if the parents did ask for another opinion they would have either found an
alternative that would help their child while stile protecting the parents autonomy
in raising their child, or they would have found that there was no other option other
than a transfusion.