Child Sacrifice

"This is not an eleventh-hour epiphany employed to take her daughter out of the rigours of chemotherapy. Rather it is a decision made by a mother, on behalf of a daughter she truly loves, steeped in a practice that has been rooted in their culture from its beginnings."
Ontario Justice Gethin Edward

"This is monumental for our people right across the country, and we're going to get the news out right away."
"We were the first people here, we looked after ourselves, we had our traditional medicines. We looked after your ancestors when they arrived here, and what medicines do you think we used?"
Ava Hill, chief, Six Nations band

"The real issue is not whether the mother has a treaty right to practise traditional medicine but whether the child has a right to life and to medical decision-making that can help her live."
"How does 'traditional aboriginal medicine' mean taking a child by motored vehicle to a white man in Florida, who has no apparent medical qualifications and recommends eating raw vegetables to cure leukemia?"
Juliet Guichon, University of Calgary bio-ethicist

Makayla Sault, 10, underwent 11 weeks of chemotherapy before opting out of treatment in favour of traditional First Nations medicine. Her family says it is working, but her doctors warn that decision could be fatal and is asking the Children’s Aid Society to investigate.

When an eleven-year-old aboriginal girl was diagnosed with leukemia it was naturally assumed that everything would be done under modern medical scientific practise to save her life. The girl began chemotherapy for her acute lymphoblastic leukemia in August. After ten days she and her mother stated that McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton was injecting 'poison' into her body and refused further treatment.

Doctors at the hospital viewed conventional treatment as the only hope to combat her cancer. That treatment is well known to have a 90% cure rate. When her mother informed pediatric oncologists at the hospital that the child would be given traditional aboriginal medical treatment, the hospital turned to the Brant Child and Family Services but they refused to intervene, claiming the matter was not that of child protection but of health-care consent.

And now a judge has ruled that First Nations' people legally have a right to their traditional native health care, favouring it over modern medical procedures. Rejecting the hospital's request that the child be ordered back to the hospital by the local children's aid society, his decision was roundly applauded by most in the packed courtroom. The judge's concluding ruling that traditional health care represents an integral portion of the family's Mohawk culture and as such is protected under the Constitution left those in attendance elated.

Supporters, outside a Brantford, Ont., courtroom, of the girl, known as J.J, and her mother, known as D.H., cheered when Justice Gethin Edward concluded the family’s aboriginal rights trumped the hospital’s attempts to compel child-welfare authorities to intervene and send J.J. back to the hospital for chemotherapy.

 

Citing a provision recognizing "existing aboriginal and treaty rights" generally used to support fishing and hunting rights, Justice Edward stated that the evidence he weighed demonstrated that the girl's mother is "deeply committed to her longhouse beliefs and her belief that traditional medicines work". The family's right to practise traditional medicine is not dependent on the treatments' proven success as recognized by the "Western medical paradigm", he ruled.

No mention was made that the parents of the girl took her to a private clinic operated by a non-native businessman in Florida whose state license is for the provision of massages, not medical treatment, but who claims he is capable of treating cancer successfully. Despite which the aboriginal community has claimed a victory for their traditional methods and way of life. For their part, the hospital is disappointed on behalf of the child.

"We have always supported this family's decision to use traditional aboriginal healing practises in conjunction with conventional medical treatment. We remain committed to support this child's treatment with compassion and respect." The reality is that the girl was taken by her family to the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida for alternative treatment, and received as well unspecified aboriginal remedies.