Cassandra doesn't want chemotherapy. But she doesn't get to decide.

A contentious court battle is currently playing itself out and a very sick 17-year-old girl is at the centre of it.

UPDATE: 

The Supreme Court of Connecticut ruled Thursday that the state can force Cassandra to receive chemotherapy against her wishes.

It was found that the court has not violated her rights, because she is under the legal age of adulthood.

The 17-year-old has spoken out about the ruling, saying the experience has been a nightmare.

“This experience has been a continuous nightmare,” Cassandra wrote in a personal essay.

“I want the right to make my medical decisions. It’s disgusting that I’m fighting for a right that I and anyone in my situation should already have. This is my life and my body, not [the Department of Children and Families]‘s and not the state’s. I am a human — I should be able to decide if I do or don’t want chemotherapy. Whether I live 17 years or 100 years should not be anyone’s choice but mine.”

Mamamia previously wrote… 

A contentious court battle is currently playing itself out and a very sick 17-year-old girl is at the centre of it.

So much research and media attention is focused on finding breakthroughs for treating and preventing cancer. The assumption is always that patients will want treatment, and do whatever it takes to get better.

As a society we focus on patients’ resilience, strength, and determination.

The underlying message is always the same:

This is one bitch of a disease, but you must do all you—and medicine- can do to fight it.

But what about those who are defiant they do not want potentially life-saving treatment? More contentiously, what rights do sick minors have when it comes to wanting to refuse medical intervention?

This is the question currently being asked in a United States, Connecticut court.

“Cassandra C,” as she is known in court documents, is a young woman diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma. The odds are on her side. With chemotherapy treatment she has an 85 per cent chance of survival. Without treatment, doctors have said she is certain to die.

Cassandra understands this. Still she is defiant– she wants nothing to do with the “toxic poisons” of chemotherapy she is currently being “forced” to endure.

Legally though, it’s a decision that is not hers to make.

This is because Cassandra is only 17 years-old. She is still 9 months away from being given the legal right to control her own body. Her mother and legal guardian, Jackie Fortin, fully supports Cassandra’s wish to avoid treatment.

“My daughter does not want poison in her body. This is her constitutional right as a human being,” Fortin told NBC News on Wednesday. “She is almost 18…She is not 10. She is over 17. She is very bright, very smart. She knows what the poison can do. She knows what the effects can be long term for her body.”

But Cassandra is no longer in Fortin’s custody.

In December 2014 Cassandra was placed in the care of child-protection investigators as they believed Fortin was helping her daughter skip medical appointments and medicine doses. They were the ones who decided she should receive treatment in a constantly monitored room at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Centre.

“My daughter doesn’t want to die and I don’t want her to die,” Fortin said to Fox CT.

“So people out there think that I’m letting her do a death sentence and I’m not and neither is she. We are saying, these are her rights, these are her constitutional rights that have been taken away and not only that, the family has been separated at a time that it should not be.”

While Fortin maintains she is simply supporting her daughter’s right to choose, questions have also been raised over her level of influence over Cassandra.

The judge observed “how closely (Cassandra) followed her mother’s testimony and hung on her every word” during court hearings. Attorney General George Jepsen’s court brief also identified, “that Cassandra’s mother did not appear to be in support of the chemotherapy and that Cassandra is concerned about going against what her mother would like to see happen”.

But Cassandra is arguing she is making an independent decision.

The teenager, who allegedly has been denied phone privileges, has a guard outside her hospital room 24/7, and has visits by her mother monitored by a social worker, is still adamant she does not want the chemotherapy she is receiving.

Tomorrow in the Connecticut Supreme Court, lawyers will argue over whether her beliefs as a minor have any legal standing. The question will be asked: is Cassandra currently in a state of mind to make this life-and-death decision, a year short of her 18th birthday when she will legally be allowed to?

“Does she know she will die? Yes. And do I know that? Yes … In my heart, I feel when the timing is right, when Cassandra feels right, or if she starts getting sick, she will come to me and say, ‘Mom, I am ready to do chemo,’” her mother says.

In Connecticut, teenagers can consent to sex, donate blood, and access contraception before they are 18. Cassandra’s lawyers believe Cassandra should be granted a “mature minor doctrine” that gives her the right to make this key life decision now despite her young age.

Joshua Michtom, an assistant public defender in Hartford representing Cassandra, told NBC News: “You don’t go to sleep a 17-year-old knucklehead and wake up an 18-year-old sage”.

Whilst true, the law does not yet recognise Cassandra as able to make her own informed decisions. The court will reach a decision on whether to overturn this later this week.