A 17-year-old girl, listed in court papers only as Cassandra C., is in protective custody at a Connecticut hospital where she is being forced to undergo chemotherapy treatment that she says she does not want. Americans strongly value the right to refuse medical care.

​We are all familiar with situations in which Jehovah's Witnesses say no to life-saving blood transfusions, patients refuse any more surgery or artificial ventilation, and ill people forgo proven medical interventions to follow alternative care.

But those cases involve competent adults.

Cassandra is 17 — still a minor. Should she have the right to say no? I don't think so.

Cassandra has Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, the body's immune system. The National Cancer Institute says that more than 85 percent of those with this form of the disease and who get chemo will survive a minimum of five years. If the cancer is found early and treated quickly, outcomes are even better. So a child would need to have one hell of a reason for not wanting treatment given that this is a type of cancer for which a cure exists.

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