Medical News

Filed under: Childhood Cancers, Alternative Therapies

The Child Protection Agency in Quebec, Canada, is not going to force the parents of a 3-year-old boy to give him chemotherapy for cancer in his brain and spinal cord, allowing them instead to pursue alternative medicine.

The boy, Anael L’Esperance-Nascimento, was diagnosed with cancer in late 2007 and underwent an operation. After an initial chemo treatment, his parents have decided to treat him with an alternative treatment based on diet, including a focus on raw vegetables.

The province did not intervene according to officials because the boy’s illness is not currently life threatening. Healthcare providers at the hospital, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, say that chemotherapy is the boy’s best chance to prevent the cancer from spreading, but that they will not pressure government authorities to force the boy to receive the chemo.

What do you think? If chemotherapy is the best treatment according to doctors, should the parents be forced to allow their son to undergo such treatment?

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Original post by Patricia Mayville-Cox