Amish Girl Fled Chemo in U.S. for Alternative Treatment in Central America

[cab67]

13. this is why rights aren't (and shouldn't be) absolute

To me, there is no such thing as "alternative medicine." There are therapies that work (medicine), things called "therapies" that don't (quackery), and a range of treatments whose effectiveness has not yet been properly assessed. Adults can make informed decisions about whether to choose medicine or quackery, or to roll the dice with something that could be either one. But our rights to make such decisions for others are (and should be) sharply limited.

I honestly don't know where the line should be drawn. There's a difference between a mother refusing to vaccinate her child on the crackpot theory that vaccines cause autism and a mother begging to apply an experimental treatment for a child with little to no hope from currently approved therapies, and educated persons can see this difference. We must prevent ill-informed parents from harming their children out of ignorance, but the line demarcating this from parents exercising good judgment is blurry.

Just a scientist's tuppence.