JJ Back on Chemo

April 26, 2015 permalink

Last year Ontario courts allowed two aboriginal girls with leukemia to pursue alternative treatments instead of chemo therapy. Since then one of the girls, Makayla Sault, has died. [1] [2]. The cancer of the other girl, known only as JJ, has returned. Her family has decided to resume chemo therapy. Judge Gethin Edward has modified his ruling of last year, though the journalists do not state clearly what that modification was. Earlier articles on JJ: [3] [2].

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First Nations girl who used alternative treatment back on chemotherapy after leukaemia returns

Tom Blackwell | April 25, 2015 1:57 PM ET @tomblackwellNP

BRANTFORD, ONT. — The legal wrangling has ended, but debate about a young aboriginal girl’s cancer treatment is likely to continue unchecked after new revelations about her condition emerged Friday at an extraordinary court hearing.

The girl had been in remission from leukemia, but the cancer returned last month and she has resumed chemotherapy, seven months after rejecting it in favour of native remedies and other alternative care, her lawyer said.

As the patient and her mother looked on, the judge who first ruled on the case in November then took the rare step of agreeing to change his decision at the request of lawyers involved in the affair.

The ruling controversially concluded the girl’s family had a constitutional right to choose traditional native medicine over conventional treatment for cancer. It was modified Friday to stress that a child’s best interests must always be paramount in such situations, though traditional treatments should still be respected.

Afterward, Justice Gethin Edward capped the unusual session — it is almost unheard of for a court to adjust its ruling long after the fact — by coming down from the bench to talk with the girl, her family, lawyers and others involved.

“This is a good day,” he said with a smile to Chief Ava Hill of Six Nations.

Evidence suggests that between 70 and 90 per cent of child leukemia patients can be cured with conventional treatment that includes chemotherapy; without it, the disease is usually a death sentence, medical experts say.

Another aboriginal girl, Makayla Sault from neighbouring New Credit First Nation, died in February after similarly pulling out of chemotherapy for leukemia.

Last year’s ruling, though, was embraced by many First Nations members as an overdue recognition of traditional ways and rights.

Paul Williams, the Six Nations parents’ lawyer, said his clients do not regret taking their daughter out of chemotherapy.

The girl can be identified only as J.J. because of a court-ordered publication ban.

“The family has always acknowledged that mainstream medicine was one of its options,” Williams said. “But there are good reasons why they made the decisions they made, and I don’t think any of them are mistakes.”

The family, the Hamilton, Ont., hospital where the girl was first treated, the local children’s aid society, Six Nations band and the family have been in closed-door talks with Ontario for five months, launched when the government belatedly got involved in the case.

The deadline for appealing Justice Edward’s decision was repeatedly extended as talks wore on.

“[But] people took what could have been a nasty confrontation … and Ontario said ‘We don’t need to appeal,’ ” Williams said.

As the girl’s cancer came back, the family concluded “chemotherapy, along with traditional Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) medicine, which J.J. had already been receiving, would be the next best step,” said the lawyer.

In a joint statement, Attorney General Madeleine Meilleur, the family and the reserve said Friday the case’s resolution lets the family move ahead with treatment, “using the best that both medicines have to offer.”

Juliet Guichon, a bioethicist and lawyer at the University of Calgary who studies legal conflicts over children’s health, welcomed the ruling’s modification, arguing that it had originally put constitutional rights above a child’s life.

“The fact that the parents have agreed to chemotherapy, along with traditional Haudenosaunee medicine, means that the child has a chance to live,” she added.

The case revolves around the second of two Southern Ontario girls, both 11, diagnosed last year with leukemia. Both started undergoing chemotherapy but then pulled out, saying they wanted to pursue aboriginal remedies instead.

They also attended a Florida alternative-health clinic, the Hippocrates Health Institute, which treats advanced cancer patients with vegan, raw-food diets and other unproven therapies.

J.J.’s family no longer has contact with that facility, Williams said Friday.

A local child-welfare agency refused requests to apprehend the children so they could be forced back into chemo.

The hospital took Brant Family & Children’s Services to court last fall over its decision regarding J.J.

Judge Edward declined to force her into chemotherapy, saying her mother has a right under the Constitution to pursue traditional medicine, even if it is not validated by “the Western medical paradigm.”

Williams explained that the patient’s health-care team now includes a senior pediatric oncologist and a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) chief with experience in native medicine.

“The two paths of medicine began working together in a respectful and complex way,” he said.

tblackwell@nationalpost.com

Source: National Post