Tyrell Dueck
Editorial Page Toronto Star
July 3, 1999
It is a tragedy that touches our hearts and tears at our sense of
moral certitude.
Tyrell Dueck, the 13-year-old Saskatchewan boy who made
headlines in March when he refused to allow doctors to
amputate his cancerous leg, died Wednesday night.
It is wrenching to see one so young fall victim to this terrible
disease. But Tyrell's story was made all the more tragic by the
legal and ethical battles that surrounded his treatment.
Twice the courts ordered Tyrell's parents to allow him to
undergo chemotherapy and surgery to halt the cancer that was
spreading through his body. Both times the family refused,
opting instead for prayer and herbal remedies and, finally,
alternative therapies offered by a Mexican clinic.
The parents' advice was well-meaning but medically suspect.
Tyrell was too well-behaved - too honourable in his own way -
to question their judgment.
So he, too, fought the medical establishment.
Would Tyrell be alive today if he and his parents had heeded
the advice of the courts and their doctors? It's impossible to
say.
Sadly, modern medicine was not given a fair chance.
