Parents Rights - States Wrongs

The Story of Neon Roberts, the 7 year old who has been forcibly taken from his mother to undergo  radiation for a brain tumour that was operated on previously,  must surely be setting off alarm bells in the hearts of every parent or sensible adult.

This is an almost unbelievable story that we have been made aware off as the judge allowed the details of mother and child to be made public so as to assist in the location of both mother and child .The mother had taken the child away as she didn't want him to endure the radiotherapy.

There are so many levels on which this is wrong that it is hard to know where to start.

Firstly we have a sick child, that right now needs his mum. What he doesn't need is the stress that the state are placing on this child and the anxiety that this is causing to him.
There is absolutely no way that the medical profession can say hand on heart that the radiotherapy will save his life, in fact the consequences of treating a brain tumour in this way are hideous and it most certainly is not without the most awful side effects.

If the prognosis of this child's health is not good, then surely it is about quality of life, and not quantity or the states arrogance at believing it knows best.

The trauma this mother must be going through right now is beyond imagination and the lack of compassion from the law is terrifying - where is the law of common sense and parental rights.
Where does this state intervention stop.

Whether you agree of disagree with the court ruling on this particular issue, think of  a situation of which you hold a strong view on what is right for your child, then think how you would react if that went against what the state determined to be right for your child. It might be that you don't want your child to be vaccinated or receive a blood transfusion or any number of scenarios that parents everyday, take a decision on.

In terms of our children's health, it should come down to the parents right to determine what they feel that child can endure against the possible outcome or benefits to that child's life.

Are we all going to be forced to take our children to the doctors every time they are ill rather than do what good parents do and look after them and let them rest and in the vast vast majority of cases, get better of their own accord or will we have to take them to the GP so they can be prescribed something that they don't need, like antibiotics for a virus.

May be vitamins will be outlawed for children, these vital minerals that are found in our food that we all need to survive, but are warned off from taking by doctors or advised to not go over the ludicrous RDA amounts, which of course are so low that vitamins can seem ineffective at those doses ( that's for another blog)
You might find yourself arrested for giving your child supplements and not prescribed medication - might sound far fetched, but it could happen, we have some pretty daft laws on the books and drug companies are powerful lobbyists who make a lot of money for the share holders!

No money in vitamins - no patent, so no huge profit.

So we could very easily find that the state starts interfering in our health choices as adults, so what chance our children have.

I would have done just the same as this mother, I couldn't bare to watch the effects of radiotherapy on my son, and especially as the evidence for its effectiveness is so poor.

I would want to explore all other options and would be looking to Burzynski's work in Texas.

We are living in a culture of fear.

The medical profession act in fear, what if they don't do blah blah blah....

The parents are made to feel fear.....what if they don't agree to have.......

All the time who gets rich out of this fear culture - those that want to sell the drug that might do......

Well this is not the way health works.  Operating from a fear basis is creating stress on all.

As parents we have to take responsibility for our children, we mustn't look to blame when things go wrong unless real negligence can be proven.

Doctors have got to be free to respect parents decisions and not act like 'god' as if they have the ultimate knowledge, which i'm sure all good doctors know they don't.
This is about sensible discussion on the best outcome, and that is never going to be one that was forced on anyone.

A parents right over their child's health has got to be sacrosanct, we are not talking about a lack of care of basic needs here, malnutrition etc, we are looking at an informed parent who has made a decision based on facts and her love for her child.  This is a heart breaking decision that no parent wants to face and right now state intervention has made that situation worse for all concerned.

And we should all be concerned!

Lots written about the UK being ruled by the European state, well how much influence over our individual choices does our own government control - we want freedom from Europe, many say, but we are letting our freedoms be eroded by our own government.

The sadness of Neon Roberts situation is actually highlighting a far bigger picture right now that if we ignore, we could well come to regret.

In the US, many states have compulsory vaccinations - now why is that?  It is a given that the effectiveness of vaccines is suspect to say the least, their own history shows that, but remember how powerful the drug company lobbyists are and governments only know what drug companies tell them, who is putting the other side? Who is making the profit....of course, those that are advising governments on the need for their vaccines.....says it all really doesn't it?

Well let this be one thing that doesn't cross the pond!

We all need to be aware of how governments use fear to erode our liberties and done in the right way, we can find ourselves even agreeing to give them up on the smallest of problems. State control and big brother are here, but do we want it? and do want it on our health choices?

Never mind Europe, we have control plenty coming from our own fear inducing system we elect.

So Neon Roberts terribly sad situation should be making us aware of a very big issue here.

Mine and many other parents hearts must be going out to his mother right now.