A Connecticut 17-year-old girl with cancer has lost her court battle to stop the state from forcing her to receive chemotherapy, CBS New York reported.
Cassandra C, with the full support of her mother, appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court to prevent state child services from violating her rights by forcing her to undergo chemo treatments for Hodgkin's lymphoma.
"She does not want toxins in her body," Jackie Fortin, the girl's mother, told CBS 2. "She does not want people telling her what to do with her body and how to treat it."
But on Thursday the high court ruled against the teenager, who is currently confined to a room at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, deciding she was not mature enough to make her own medical decisions.
At the center of the case was the "mature minor doctrine," which is recognized in other states and allows minors to make important decisions if they are mature enough. But this was the first time the doctrine was brought before the Connecticut Supreme Court. She will be free to make her own medical decisions when she turns 18 in September.
With chemotherapy, doctors placed Cassandra's survival rate at 85 percent. Without it, she would almost certainly die within two years.
But Cassandra considers chemo a poison that would do more harm than good to her body, her mother previously told news outlets. After she was diagnosed last September, doctors at Children's Medical Center notified the state Department of Children and Families because she and her mother missed several appointments, CBS New York reported.
A trial court granted DCF temporary custody of Cassandra with the intent to make her receive the treatments. She and her mother sought a court injunction against the order but did not succeed, and in November Cassandra began chemo.
After two days of chemotherapy, Cassandra ran away, according to court records obtained by the station. She returned a week later and went back to the hospital to continue the treatments. By mid-December, doctors performed a surgery to install a port in Cassandra's chest to administer the chemo drugs.
DCF defended its actions, arguing it has an obligation when there is strong evidence a child will most certainly die as a result of not going through with treatment.
Fortin said after Thursday's ruling she does not intend to let her daughter die and that she only wants to seek alternative treatments for Cassandra.
"She has always - even years ago - said that if she was diagnosed with cancer, she would not put poison in her body," Fortin told NBC Connecticut.
