Mother kidnaps seven year old son to deny him radiotherapy

[Lace Neil Singer]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...treatment.html

Basically, she thought that radiotherapy would fry her son's brain and wants to treat his cancer with alternative therapies instead. Doctors say that unless he gets the treatment soon, he'll die. The boy's father is also worried about the treatment, but wants his son to have it so he'll live.

[HYHYBT]

...and when he dies for lack of treatment, she'll remain convinced she did the right thing anyway.

[Rageaholic]

This is one of those cases where both sides have a point. I can understand the mother being concerned about the treatment since there is some risks involved. She doesn't sound like some fundamentalist wackjob who think that medicine is of the devil. But in cases like this, you have to put your faith in the doctors as they know best.

Hopefully they go easy on the mother.

[Seifer]

Mr Roberts, an IT consultant from Knightsbridge, west London, said outside court that his wife was opposed to the radiation treatment, fearing that it might damage their son’s ‘intelligence, growth and hormones’.

At least he'd be alive.

This kind of shit infuriates me. Homeopathic medicine is bullshit. If people want to try and cure a cold with health beads or whatever it is they think will magically "cure" them, then fine. However, cancer is serious. It's not very often that cancer will sort itself out, so it needs to be attacked and dealt with immediately. I understand that both parents are concerned since radiotherapy and chemotherapy have known side-effects, but if it's the best chance he has to survive brain cancer, then it's the best option.

[Lace Neil Singer]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...treatment.html

She's now saying that if it turns out her son has cancer (a mass appeared on an x-ray), she'll agree to the treatment.

But personally, I think that the delay in treating her son is going to count against him. Poor kid, having to suffer for his mother's stupidity.

[Seifer]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...treatment.html

She's now saying that if it turns out her son has cancer (a mass appeared on an x-ray), she'll agree to the treatment.

Wait, what? She already knows he has cancer - they removed a cancerous tumor from his brain. Now that another tumor is showing up, she's thinking it might not be cancer? This woman isn't just an idiot, she's a naive idiot. She's willing to put her son's life on the line and use homeopathic (i.e. bullshit) medicine to "cure" him of an incurable disease, and now she's finally relenting but only "if it's cancer."

She claimed she had been told by a doctor that medics would have to ‘fry his [Neon’s] brains’ with radiotherapy to make sure his cancer would not recur.

Yeah, I'm sure those are the exact words the doctor used, "fry his brains." What a stupid cow.

[Lace Neil Singer]

That part smells fishy to me, too. It kinda brings to mind SCs who make complaints saying, "Well, she was rude to me!" when in actual fact, the cashier wasn't rude but just said no.

[s_stabeler]

she must have got the homeopathy idea from someone; maybe they were the ones who said it to try to scare her into doing exactly what she has done. ( and if someone's shady enough to call radiotherapy frying someone's brains, they're shady enough to lie about being a doctor)

[Panacea]

she must have got the homeopathy idea from someone; maybe they were the ones who said it to try to scare her into doing exactly what she has done. ( and if someone's shady enough to call radiotherapy frying someone's brains, they're shady enough to lie about being a doctor)

Here's a scenario I find much more likely:

The doctors tell the parents the risks vs benefits of radiotherapy after the surgery, as is the legal and ethical thing for them to do.

Mom hears the list of possible adverse reactions and is scared shitless. She thinks, "there must be a better way."

Fair enough. Patients should always get a second opinion and educate themselves on their disease and its treatment.

But she ran into a bunch of bogus homeopathic sites promising miracles, and rather than looking critically at what they have to say, Mom latches onto the idea of "natural" medicines as a better alternative. What she fails to realize is that even if it is "natural" you are still putting foriegn compounds in your body, only in this case compounds with no science to show either their efficacy or safety----backed only by dubious claims that have never been scrutinized or verified.

She saw what she wanted to see, and heard what she wanted to hear. While she might think her actions were motivated by love, they were in fact motivated by fear.

Mom fucked up. Dad's the rational one here; he's coping with his fears and doing what he has to do for his son. He's the one who's actually acting out of real love for his kid.

[wolfie]

I think it was either here or on CS that I first saw this, but for people who insist on natural/alternative treatments, here goes:

There's a term for natural/alternative medicine that has been scientifically proven to be both safe and effective - it's called "medicine".

Let's face it - most doctors want to do what's best for their patients. If treatment "A" is safer and more effective than treatment "B", guess which one they'll prescribe. If reports come in about an alternative treatment that doesn't have the nasty side effects of the currently accepted treatment, some doctor (probably associated with a university medical school) will investigate. After all, who doesn't want the chance of winning a free trip to Stockholm?

[gremcint]

Let's not completely lose perspective, this woman is terrified for her child, she may not be making the most rational decisions right now.