Lucky me, I'm all signed in and posting random crap. I've got a new template to make my goofy ass blog look cool. I think it's cool, and that's all that counts. I have made a couple of other changes that are newly available through the new and improved version. I don't have time at the moment to sit and play too much with this, but I've only dipped my toe into the water of available features. I plan on talking The Boy out of derby practice tonight so that I can sit here and figure it out. I've got errands to run, some sort of supper to plan and purchase and cook, and the possibility that I'll have to tag along to derby tonight as my current plans.
Tonight is Momma's last derby practice before the debut match in Birmingham. I'm sure I've explained this, but I don't greatly relish attending practices. Big Brother goes along, but he mostly stays out of trouble. Plus, if he does get in trouble, Momma can deal with it with no great theft to her efforts on the track. If The Boy decides to go, I must also. She can't very well attend to the crap he can get into, and as is his want, he gets into anything he can, doesn't listen to any idea or talk of limits (stay inside, no playing in the parking lot, no climbing on top of the arcade games, especially no climbing whatsoever while wearing roller skates.) So regardless of my desire not to be stuck for two to three hours wandering dumbly around the roller rink, I go with what The Boy wants most of the time. I'm not above offering a movie as a trap to keep him and me home, but if he really wants to go, I'll suck it up and go.
Anyway, that's the deal. I don't now know what I'll do tonight. I'd love to stay at home and be a philosophyless slacker or figure out how to label all my posts or perhaps write about the new funny/outrageous thing I will have unearthed (read via bloglines) using my amazing web finding things power.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
let him die if he wants
From Science Blogs, we get an updated story on the dumb ass hippy family that doesn't accept the accepted medicine. We got this story hot not so long ago, the story of the sixteen year old with lymphoma who prefers drinking root tea as opposed to medicine with actual evidence as to its efficacy.
Seems this fellow was really unhappy with his original round of chemotherapy. He didn't enjoy it, but I don't know that I've ever heard of anyone enjoying chemo. Apparently it was so bad, and he's so smart, that the family has decided to he will undergo an alternative treatment.
When I first heard this story, I was a little unsure of my exact opinion in the matter. On the one hand, sixteen isn't an adult unless you murdered someone. Even then you don't get to vote or buy cigarettes or drink alcohol. Sixteen year old kids make bad and ill informed decisions constantly while at the same time being certain that they are the fountains of all the world's knowledge. There's no indignation like youthful certainty. On the other hand, where does the state get off trying to force medical treatment on anyone ever? I seem to remember having certain inalienable rights.
I feel for this idiot kid and his idiot parents. They don't care much for evidence apparently, but when you choose to forego proof in favor of faith and hope and wishing in one hand, you get what you deserve. And I have no doubt that this kid will be dead soon. But along with our other rights, I believe that we have a right to seek the medical care that we choose. We may not like it, but we have no right to insert our desires into this family's life, whether or not we are 100% certain that they are signing the child's death sentence. Besides, none of us make it out alive; some of us just don't make it out alive quicker.
I dread these situations. No family has ever expected the sicknesses that some of our children must face, and there are so many sick children around the world facing unimaginable sickness and disease. I can only imagine what I would do if either of my children were faced with something so awful as cancer. I would expect that I would seek out doctors that were respected by their peers (not that that is indicative of anything) and I would seek out proven treatments. I don't know that I would drive to Tijuana for a "natural remedy" cocktail of roots and leaves and horse's ass. If I had actually used up every single other avenue, and if I were certain that the "natural remedy" were my last and only glimmer of hope . . . I'd think that the ends of the earth would be mere speed bumps in my drive to save my children. But I'd start out with the doctors and scientists whose life work is proving techniques.
Finally, as I stated in my last post about this hippy family. If the alternative treatment works, then why do they have to go to that most medically advanced of countries, Mexico? Don't get me wrong, I love Mexico, the food, the people. I don't see them having advanced their medicine more than we in the US. But if this therapy works, why aren't we upset that it's being kept away from us?
Seems this fellow was really unhappy with his original round of chemotherapy. He didn't enjoy it, but I don't know that I've ever heard of anyone enjoying chemo. Apparently it was so bad, and he's so smart, that the family has decided to he will undergo an alternative treatment.
When I first heard this story, I was a little unsure of my exact opinion in the matter. On the one hand, sixteen isn't an adult unless you murdered someone. Even then you don't get to vote or buy cigarettes or drink alcohol. Sixteen year old kids make bad and ill informed decisions constantly while at the same time being certain that they are the fountains of all the world's knowledge. There's no indignation like youthful certainty. On the other hand, where does the state get off trying to force medical treatment on anyone ever? I seem to remember having certain inalienable rights.
I feel for this idiot kid and his idiot parents. They don't care much for evidence apparently, but when you choose to forego proof in favor of faith and hope and wishing in one hand, you get what you deserve. And I have no doubt that this kid will be dead soon. But along with our other rights, I believe that we have a right to seek the medical care that we choose. We may not like it, but we have no right to insert our desires into this family's life, whether or not we are 100% certain that they are signing the child's death sentence. Besides, none of us make it out alive; some of us just don't make it out alive quicker.
I dread these situations. No family has ever expected the sicknesses that some of our children must face, and there are so many sick children around the world facing unimaginable sickness and disease. I can only imagine what I would do if either of my children were faced with something so awful as cancer. I would expect that I would seek out doctors that were respected by their peers (not that that is indicative of anything) and I would seek out proven treatments. I don't know that I would drive to Tijuana for a "natural remedy" cocktail of roots and leaves and horse's ass. If I had actually used up every single other avenue, and if I were certain that the "natural remedy" were my last and only glimmer of hope . . . I'd think that the ends of the earth would be mere speed bumps in my drive to save my children. But I'd start out with the doctors and scientists whose life work is proving techniques.
Finally, as I stated in my last post about this hippy family. If the alternative treatment works, then why do they have to go to that most medically advanced of countries, Mexico? Don't get me wrong, I love Mexico, the food, the people. I don't see them having advanced their medicine more than we in the US. But if this therapy works, why aren't we upset that it's being kept away from us?
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