More About Starchild Abraham Cherrix’s Altie Cancer Treatment Fight — ACCOMAC, Va. An Eastern Shore teenager’s legal battle to forgo conventional chemotherapy treatment for his cancer has ended with an agreement between his family’s attorneys and social services officials.
     This has been an on-going fight. For the details, you can visit Orac Knows, AKA Respectful Insolence. Orac’s been following the story since it started, and has explained, in depth, many of the issues involved.
     In short, Starchild has Hodgkin’s disease, a form of lymphatic cancer. The kid — and he is a kid, 16 right now, and younger still when this mess started — had one round of standard chemotherapy, and decided it sucked. So, he switched to an altie treatment involving plenty of herbs and bullshit. This particular alternative therapy has a cure ratio of practically nothing, pretty much meaning that the kid was going to die of cancer. This became an issue, because Starchild was 14 at the time of his choice, and his idiot parents were letting him go have this alternative “therapy”. In a nutshell, the kid had chosen to die, out of ignorance, and the parents were letting him, out of ignorance, so the FIA (or the local equivalent thereof) had stepped in, threatening to take the kid away, which resulted in court battles and controversy. Meanwhile, the kid’s cancer was getting worse, not better, surprise, surprise.
     At the start of what was to be a two-day hearing for Starchild Abraham Cherrix, an Accomack County judge announced a consent decree. Under the decree, the 16-year-old Chincoteague boy will be treated by an oncologist of his choice who’s board-certified in radiation therapy and interested in alternative medical treatments.
     That sounds fair enough. Of course, I’m still leaning towards the opinion that the government should have stayed out of it, largely because the parents and the kid willfully ignored the fact that the “alternative therapy” they’d chosen would not cure Starchild. Frankly, if you’re going to be that kind of stupid, I think we should leave you alone to get on with it, and get yourself out of the gene pool as quickly as possible.
     
     New Planets to be Discovered — I must say, this one made me gag on my coffee, I was laughing so hard. Here: The International Astronomical Union is set to find a new definition of the word planet this week, which should totally modify our perception upon our Solar System. Following astronomers’ decision, Pluto should remain a planet, but a few others will join it soon. –snip– “For the first time in more than 75 years, we will be able to discover new planets in our Solar System. This is a fascinating prospect,” said Richard Binzel, a member of the IAU planet definition committee which put together the proposal.
     Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we will be able to discover new planets. Not, I would like to point out, because there are new objects to investigate, but because they changed the definition of a planet. Ain’t that beautiful? I laughed my ass off. Bitches, please.

     Benemar “Ben” Benatta was detained by the U.S. after 9/11, and finally released after 5 years, without apology. — Via Stupid Evil Bastard. Benatta is a Muslim man, former military, who tried to seek asylum in Canada a week before 9/11. Instead, he was picked up at the border crossing and held for five fucking years, despite being cleared of any terrorist connections, despite a ruling from a judge that his imprisonment was illegal, despite never having been charged with a crime of any sort.
     Ladies and gentlemen, this happened in America, land of the free, home of the brave, where you are innocent until proven guilty.

     Guys? Just so you know? Shit like this means that the terrorists have already won. They beat us. With one attack, they got us to give over our freedoms and rights, and bow down to criminals. In grade school, we learned that America was great, and why it was so. These days, all of that has been flushed down the toilet.

     ”You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.” — Charles Austin Beard (via Quoteland)

     ”They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” — Ben Franklin (via Bartleby)

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Medicine, Politics, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.