Local News

Conn. Supreme Court Rules That 17-Year-Old Girl Must Continue Court-Ordered Chemotherapy

By Hannah Sparks @Hannah_M_Sparks

January 8, 2015

2 minutes to read

Upholding a lower court ruling, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the state can force a 17-year-old girl to undergo chemotherapy despite the fact that she and her mother do not want the treatment to continue, according to WCVB.

Known as Cassandra C. in court documents, the girl, who is from Windsor Locks, was diagnosed with high-risk Hodgkin’s lymphoma in September 2014. In earlier court hearings, doctors testified that she would not survive without treatment, and that chemo would give her an 80 to 85 percent chance at survival, The Hartford Courant reported.

She did not want to undergo chemotherapy treatments, however – a decision her mother, Jackie Fortin, supported. When they missed several doctor’s appointments, the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center notified the Department of Children and Families (DCF). A trial court granted the agency temporary custody of Cassandra at a November hearing.

Jackie Fortin, right, stands outside the Connecticut Supreme Court with Judy Stephens, a Connecticut woman who said she has survived brain cancer without chemotherapy.

According to a court docket, at first Cassandra was allowed to return home, but was later placed in the sole care of the DCF after she ran away from home to avoid treatment.

Now Cassandra is confined in a room at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford. Her court-ordered chemotherapy treatment, which resumed on December 17, is set to last six months. She will turn 18 in September and be able to make her own medical decisions.

Cassandra and Fortin had wanted to pursue alternative treatments: “This is her decision and her rights, which is what we are here fighting about,’’ Fortin said, via WCVB. “We should have choices about what to do with our bodies.’’

The DCF alleges that Fortin’s views on chemotherapy influenced her daughter’s decision.

The decision hinged on the “mature minor doctrine,’’ which holds that minors should be able to make their own decisions about medical treatments if they can prove that they are mature or competent enough to do so. The doctrine, which is recognized in several states, generally applies to 16 and 17 year olds, and is typically applied in the reverse of this situation: to allow minors to pursue treatment their parents have rejected.

While Cassandra and Fortin had requested an additional hearing regarding her legal maturity, the Supreme Court ruled that the question was sufficiently aired at previous Superior Court hearings, The Courant reported.

She did not fit the criteria “under any standard,’’ the court said, according to WCVB.