Top Connecticut court to hear arguments on teen's cancer care

[January 08, 2015] By Richard Weizel

HARTFORD, Conn. (Reuters) - A Connecticut teenager diagnosed with cancer, who has been forced for the past month to receive state-ordered chemotherapy over her family's objections, will ask the state's top court on Thursday to order a stop to the treatments.

The teen was diagnosed with what doctors say is an aggressive, but curable cancer in September, days before her 17th birthday. After surgery failed to rid her of Hodgkin's lymphoma, she had two rounds of chemotherapy before asking that the treatments be stopped.

At that point, the state's Department of Children and Families stepped in and took the teen, identified in court papers as "Cassandra C.," into custody and continued the treatments that doctors contend are essential if she is to survive.

A lower court upheld the state's right to intervene, while the teen and her mother, Jackie Fortin, argued that she should be treated as a "mature minor," who has the legal right to reject medical care if she does not want it.

It is not clear why the teen and her mother oppose the continued treatment, although Fortin said in a statement her daughter had to be strapped down during recent chemotherapy treatments.

The state's Supreme Court has scheduled a rare expedited hearing on Thursday that will include arguments from attorneys for the girl, her mother and the state.

Doctors say in court documents the teen has "an 85 percent chance of survival with the chemo treatments, but if left untreated," faces a "near certainty of death within two years."

The case will likely hinge on whether the court recognizes the idea of a "mature minor," which is settled law in some U.S. states but not Connecticut.

Attorneys for the state argued in court papers that is a question for the Legislature, not the courts, to decide.

But Cassandra's lawyer, assistant public defender Joshua Michtom, said it would be appropriate for the court to rule.

"It's hard to imagine a situation in our country where an ordinary 17-year-old should be forced to take chemotherapy against her will," Michtom said. "Adults get to choose the care we get and don't get, even care doctors say we need. Doesn't a mature minor have the same right?"

(Editing by Scott Malone and Peter Cooney)

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