Court: Teen Must Continue Forced Chemo

On Thursday, Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled that a 17-year-old girl is not mentally competent to make her own medical decisions and must continue to receive chemotherapy treatments, even though she has refused. The teen, called only Cassandra C. in legal records, has battled to halt the treatments, a decision her mother says she supports. But state lawyers say that behaviors including skipped oncology appointments and exams are evidence that Cassandra is too immature to make life-altering decisions. Cassandra is diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and has an 80 to 85 percent chance of recovery with chemo, according to doctors, but will die without it.