ROYAL OAK, Mich. (AP) - Prosecutors are expected to drop their fight to override a family's wishes and order surgery for a 2-year-old girl with brain cancer.Jala and Shaheda Hoque, immigrants from Bangladesh, took their daughter Noshin to a doctor because her left eye wandered and she was having trouble moving her left arm and leg. Specialists found a tumor pressing against the girl's brain stem.
Doctors disagreed on whether surgery would help but agreed it was risky.
The Hoques instead sought help through homeopathic treatment in Canada. After the family's pediatrician told the state Family Independence Agency, the agency got the prosecutor's office to intervene. [emphasis supplied]
Heartless as it may seem, there do seem to be times when it is best to let nature take its course. If all the doctors are saying that surgery is risky, but cannot agree whether or not it will help, that would seem to be one of the times you step back and say, no, let us just let nature take its course. Maybe the couple was just lucky enough to draw a sympathetic prosecutor, or maybe the truth turned him around. Whatever, I think he is making the right decision:
[W]ith her condition worsening, he is now dropping the petition for surgery and instead asking the parents to see that she has the medication she needs to fight the pain . . . .
May God, or it may be Allah in this case, comfort the poor little child and her family through this crisis.
attribution: AP via FindLaw
I am entirely grateful that I am not in the position to have to make this choice with regard to a child of mine. Such a heavy decision would tend to wear heavy on one's heart.
Posted by Tiger at May 13, 2003 07:19 PM | TrackBack