How many apples would this take?

I have an interesting background. My parents raised me with every sort of alternative medicine you could ever imagine. Things I would have never guessed were real were deemed “medicine” and claimed to heal the most mild to the most severe of all disorders. We ate healthy. We didn’t get vaccines. We didn’t see any doctors that actually had medical licenses. Everything was done naturally.

My junior year in high school, I got sick. Really sick. I had tonsillitis or something to that effect and was lucky if I could down water or jello (made from scratch, minus the sugar of course). I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t swallow. I lay in bed with little life and lost 20 lbs over the course of three weeks (making me a whopping 85 lbs). But, the only “doctors” we saw were one that were hiding from the police (really, not kidding). I finally got better but it took months to regain my strength. I am convinced that it was 110% the hand of God. Nothing else could have made me well.

In fact, once I was on the mend, my mother admitted to me that she didn’t know if I would make it. She actually thought I was going to die. It is something I have always wondered about, but try not to dwell on. I could live a lifetime of blaming if I chose to, and I don’t want that. I know my parents were doing their best to do what they felt was best. I know they loved me. And while I completely disagree on medical issues, I respect their desire to do what they felt was right.

So I usually don’t mentally approach the subject.

Until recently.

There is a young man in Minnesota who has cancer – not tonsillitis – who needs treatment. He is 13 and his tumor is growing. After one treatment of Chemo, his parents opted to go a natural route of treatment. They have similar opinions to those my parents had. They want to treat this cancer (which has a high survival rate when treated by chemo) with other methods. Since the tumor is growing, a judge ordered this child to have chemo against his will, saying the parents were medically neglecting him. The child says he will physically fight off anyone who tries to force chemo on him. There was even speculation that the child would be taken into temporary custody in order to obtain treatment.

Consequently, Mom and child ran. Maybe to Mexico, who knows?

My sense of right and wrong is torn at the very core with this one…

On one hand, you have a mom, not unlike my own, who loves her child and is doing what she feels is best. The child says he doesn’t want the treatment. And while I don’t agree with this decision, it is her child and their choice. Who do we think we are to step in and take over?

On the other hand, this child, not unlike myself, could be following his parents blindly because of his love towards them. He may be echoing his parents feelings and may not realize the magnitude of what CANCER is. He may be grateful in the years to come if someone steps in and helps him.

And yet… at what point do we justify removing a child from his home? Because we disagree with their views? In my limited experience I have found that most of the “natural” stuff just doesn’t work. But – some of it does. And what if, what this family chooses to do, it does work?

In trying to force their opinions (supported by fact or not) on this family, the "powers that be" have actually made them fugitives.

What is right?