Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 261
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted

Or the arbitrary age of 16, which has no foundation in psychology or anything. Meanwhile the age to vote or serve in the military is 18. You can drive at 16, but only with major restrictions these days. You could get your full license before. You get to operate farming equipment at 12 years old in most provinces though. Same with snowmobiles and ATVs.

The age is arbitrary. Children don't mature at the same pace. Children are also people, which means they have varying degrees of intelligence and understanding.

Yeah. And?

You're still completely dismissing how I've been saying it needs to be taken on a case-by-case basis.

probably because you also keep making absolutist pronouncements like the one I quotPd above.

Sports can cause injury or death of the child too. We don't take custody of kids who're enrolled in hockey or football.

This isn't worth dignifying with a response.

And you continue to ignore the difference between euthanizing someone and refusing medical treatment. They're different things.

Far from ignoring it, I've asked you several times to explain what the difference is and why it is significant. You have not.

Posted

Let's say that's true. The fact this kid was 11 (not 17 and 364 days), combined with the obvious influence of her parents' crackpot beliefs had on an impressionable child seem like significant details to me.

I agree, those are certainly significant details and should be considered. Nonetheless, it's not quite as black and white as saying if someone is a child (below a fixed cutoff age), then they should never have any ability to decide something like this for themselves.

Posted

Black Dog, you're being incredibly dishonest by ignoring the complexity of what I'm arguing. You continue to reduce those arguments into something that they're not, so you can argue against something more simplistic. I know you're smarter than this because I've seen it on these forums. I refuse to continue discussing this with you until you actually begin discussing the things I'm saying and not the oversimplified strawmen you continue to knock over.

Posted

What about adults who can be convinced of that? What about adults who are convinced of pseudoscientific treatments every single day? What about those who get their advice from Facebook and Dr. Oz? Why don't we take away medical decisions from people entirely and just allow doctors to do whatever they want?

Yeah and you can also refuse chemo for a very treatable disease as an adult. Children are difference because society deems that the state needs to protect them from their parents if they aren't demonstrating due diligence to provide the child with acceptable care.

Posted

Are you consistently libertarian on medical choices then? Should parents be able to prevent their child from receiving a blood transfusion because of their religious beliefs? Is an exorcism a viable option? If it results in death, as surgeries and medical procedures often do, should there be any repercussions?

I'm not trying to insinuate a support for woo on your part. I know that doctors avoid chemo more than the general population. I'm just interested in the conversation about where to draw the line.

I've already addressed this. Not bringing your kid to the doctor in the first place is very different from what has transpired here. They brought her to the doctor and even went through chemo. They refused following the first round.
Posted

Let's say that's true. The fact this kid was 11 (not 17 and 364 days), combined with the obvious influence of her parents' crackpot beliefs had on an impressionable child seem like significant details to me.

Actually, doctors are not allowed to discuss their patients with parents once they turn 16, not 18.
Posted

Far from ignoring it, I've asked you several times to explain what the difference is and why it is significant. You have not.

You really need that explained to you?

Here you go: One is dying the other is not. One is refusing medical intervention and letting nature take its course. The other is actively killing someone.

Hope this helps.

Posted

Yeah and you can also refuse chemo for a very treatable disease as an adult. Children are difference because society deems that the state needs to protect them from their parents if they aren't demonstrating due diligence to provide the child with acceptable care.

But they did demonstrate that by going to the oncologist and having chemo therapy.
Posted (edited)

You really need that explained to you?

Here you go: One is dying the other is not. One is refusing medical intervention and letting nature take its course. The other is actively killing someone.

Hope this helps.

Starving someone who is incapable of feeding themselves isn't actively killing them. It's letting nature take its course.

In any case, I have always understood the difference. I'm asking why the method matters when the underlying pricniple is the same.

Edited by Black Dog
Posted (edited)

But they did demonstrate that by going to the oncologist and having chemo therapy.

And one round of Chemo doesn't cure cancer (usually). The Doctors will tell you, this treatment will suck right off the bat, there is no evidence that her experience wasn't typical or extraordinary.

RoFo has gone through like 5 rounds.

Edited by Boges
Posted

Not in Canada. You can't be held criminally responsible under the age of 12 afaik.

So do you agree with this policy? If so, is that not inconsistent with your stance on an 11 year old being able to make a decision like this regarding medical treatment? If you agree that an 11 year old cannot understand killing enough to be held criminally responsible for it, then does it not also follow that they may not understand the concept of dying enough to make rational choices about it?

Posted (edited)

Starving someone who is incapable of feeding themselves isn't actively killing them. It's letting nature take its course.

Terri Schiavo FTW.

Edited by Boges
Posted

So do you agree with this policy? If so, is that not inconsistent with your stance on an 11 year old being able to make a decision like this regarding medical treatment? If you agree that an 11 year old cannot understand killing enough to be held criminally responsible for it, then does it not also follow that they may not understand the concept of dying enough to make rational choices about it?

I don't agree with setting a specific age, no. I believe there needs to be judicial discretion in determining the maturity and understanding of the child when coming to these decisions.
Posted

Starving someone who is incapable of feeding themselves isn't actively killing them. It's letting nature take its course.

In any case, I have always understood the difference. I'm asking why the method matters when the underlying pricniple is the same.

Look. I can explain the differences to you. I can't understand it for you. If you're not going to be intellectually honest here, then I have no time for you.
Posted

I've already addressed this. Not bringing your kid to the doctor in the first place is very different from what has transpired here. They brought her to the doctor and even went through chemo. They refused following the first round.

Could you support the decision if they didn't try one round of chemo?

"Our lives begin to end the day we stay silent about the things that matter." - Martin Luther King Jr
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities" - Voltaire

Posted

Could you support the decision if they didn't try one round of chemo?

If they never brought the child to the doctor in the first place, then I would see it as neglect. But that's not what happened here and dealing with hypotheticals only serves to derail threads.
Posted (edited)

Look. I can explain the differences to you. I can't understand it for you.

Can you? Because you haven't yet. Personal autonomy is either absolute (as you have been arguing) or it's not. If the government can't tell you how to live, they certainly can't tell you how to die.

Edited by Black Dog
Posted

If her cancer was that progressed, then a second round of chemo would not have solved anything. It could have made her last days very painful and downright awful.

As the parents do they want to see their child suffer? Or live out the last days with some kind of happiness? And I always thought it weird to treat cancer with radiation which can cause, more cancers. Something they are now revealing with mamograms.

Posted

If her cancer was that progressed, then a second round of chemo would not have solved anything. .

You know more than the doctors treating her then. She had somewhere between a 75 - 90% chance of survival.

Posted (edited)

If they never brought the child to the doctor in the first place, then I would see it as neglect. But that's not what happened here and dealing with hypotheticals only serves to derail threads.

Not at all. The for and against abstaining from treatment conversation has long been exhausted. I'm interested in the hypothetical discussion on whether or not there is a line to be drawn. In cases involving minors should parents have the ultimate say or doctors or some sort of medical dichotomous key?

I'm not sure what level of prognosis it would take for me to just let my child die instead of accepting a horrible treatment. If there were two rounds involved in removing tonsils my son would have refused to continue the treatment if given a choice.

Edited by Mighty AC

"Our lives begin to end the day we stay silent about the things that matter." - Martin Luther King Jr
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities" - Voltaire

Posted

Can you? Because you haven't yet. Personal autonomy is either absolute (as you have been arguing) or it's not. If the government can't tell you how to live, they certainly can't tell you how to die.

If it needs to boiled down into something black and white for you to understand what I'm saying, then I guess you're just never going to.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Tell a friend

    Love Repolitics.com - Political Discussion Forums? Tell a friend!
  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      11,018
    • Most Online
      2,945

    Newest Member
    Dealsshutter
    Joined
  • Recent Achievements

  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...