Amish Parents vs. Doctors

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Last spring in Ohio, a 10-year-old Amish girl was diagnosed with leukemia cancer, “[found] on her neck, chest and kidneys (Perez).” In order to help battle this illness, the parents to this girl “[acceded] to begin two years of treatments (Seewer).” However, “[the parents] stopped a second round of chemotherapy in June because it was making [their girl] extremely sick (Seewer).” After this event took place, “the hospital, [where the girl was being treated], took the family to court to seek temporary guardianship [over the girl] (Perez).” As a result, there has been much debate over whether or not the court should side with the hospital’s plan to obtain provisional guardianship over the girl so as to make medical decisions for her, or to side with the parent’s choice to refuse treatment for their daughter. Although it may seem that the only reasonable solution to this controversy is to allow the parents to retain full custody of their child, the doctors of Akron Children’s Hospital should be granted temporary guardianship over the girl due to their moral responsibility as medics to ensure suitable care for their patients and their extended knowledge of this type of illness and its treatment.
To begin with, the parents sought assistance for their daughter’s illness from medical professionals themselves; they’re responsible for bringing doctors into the picture. In doing so, the parents not only created a bond between the doctor and patient, but also made it the doctor’s sole responsibility to provide the best medical care possible. In this case, that medical care happened to be chemotherapy. To have the doctors simply put these tasks out of their mind when the parents decided to withdraw their child from treatments, especi...

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...o obtain an impermanent guardianship over the 10-year-old. Not only do the doctors possess a moral responsibility to ensure that the child be properly cared for throughout her illness, but, in addition, they have an abundant knowledge regarding their treatment options and will provide, regardless of the side effects, the best possible option for the 10-year-old Amish girl.

Works Cited

Perez, Alex, and Matthew Jaffe. “Amish Girl With Leukemia, Family Flees US to Avoid
Chemotherapy.” ABC News. ABC News Network, 28 Nov. 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2014. .
Seewer, John. “10-year-old Girl, Family Flee to Avoid Forced Chemo.” USA Today.
USATODAY, 27 Nov. 2013. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.

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