Sarah Hershberger and her parents have been fighting the Akron Children’s Hospital in court since 2013 after the family stopped Sarah’s treatment. The family fled to Mexico in 2014, seeking alternative treatment after the court ruled that the hospital can force Amish girl to resume chemotherapy. Sarah had been under a court-ordered guardianship to receive chemotherapy once they returned to the country.
The court ruled that the girl appeared healthy and active but also cautioned her parents that her cancer could recur and they must act quickly to get her treatment in that case. Medina County Probate and Juvenile Judge Kevin Dunn wrote in his judgement.
The girl shows no outward symptoms of the lymphoma with which she was previously diagnosed. A visit to her home in August found that Sarah was “active and working daily on the family farm, she appeared healthy and appropriately developed. Her parents are not free to act entirely as they may choose and they still have a duty to provide her care under Ohio law.
Andy Hershberger, the girl’s father said that they stopped chemotherapy in June 2013 because it was making her extremely sick even though doctors had warned that she would die without the treatments.
The decision to end chemotherapy was not religious. We’ve seen how sick it makes her.If we do chemotherapy and she would happen to die, she would probably suffer more than if we would do it this way and she would happen to die.Our belief is the natural stuff will do just as much as that stuff if it’s God’s will.
According to Ohio State laws, parents are free to decide when it comes to choosing medical treatment for their children, but not always when the decision could be a matter of life or death.
