Threat: Cancer teen to be taken by force

Abraham Cherrix on 'Hannity & Colmes' (Fox News)

The father of a Virginia teen seeking an alternative treatment for his cancer says a social worker has threatened to use force to take the boy away from the family for court-ordered chemotherapy.

Jay Cherrix of Chincoteague, Va., is concerned there could be an Elian Gonzalez-style showdown over his 16-year-old son, Abraham, who has already undergone chemotherapy for his Hodgkin's disease to no avail.

Appearing on Sean Hannity's national radio program yesterday, Jay Cherrix said, "When the social-service worker came and interviewed me, I told him how Abraham felt and about how we had met a person who had been cured by this [alternative treatment] and how we were supporting Abraham's decision. I said, 'What will you do with my little boy? Will you take him somewhere and strap him down and put duct tape on his mouth and pump full of this stuff if he doesn't want it?'

"He said, 'No, I will come to your house with a uniformed officer, and I will take your son by force if he resists. And I will take him to somebody who will do that.'

"And I said, 'I don't think I can let you do that.'"

He added there have also been other threats to take Abraham away from the family.

"They told Abraham that if he did not go and have an X-ray, they would put him in a juvenile detention center with drug dealers. They told him that if he did not do that they would put him in a foster home. ... We never thought that people could actually say that to a young fellow like that. We've been surprised by lots of stuff but we have a strong faith and we believe that we'll prevail. We think there will be a judge that will use common sense and compassion and grant a stay on that [mandated chemotherapy] order."

"I can't believe we're gonna live in a society where the government now, through a court order, is gonna send some bureaucrat into your house, take you out in handcuffs, slap you on a gurney and stick some medicine in you because they deem that you've made the wrong decision in life. I can't believe we're actually on the verge of that happening here," said an outraged Hannity. "It's almost like Elian Gonzalez for crying out loud."

In 2000, 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, a Cuban child who made it to Florida by sea, was forcibly taken by armed federal agents in a late-night forced entry into a Miami home to return him to his father in Cuba.

"We have to stop this in the United States," Jay Cherrix said. "This is an intrusion. This is the way you destroy families and it's not fair and it's not America."

On Friday, Judge Jesse Demps of Accomack County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court ordered Abraham's parents to bring him to Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk by 1 p.m. today and give consent to whatever treatment the hospital recommends.

Judge Demps also found Abraham's parents neglectful, and required them to share custody of the teen with the Accomack County Department of Social Services.

"I'm not going to receive chemotherapy no matter what," Abraham said on "Hannity & Colmes" last night. "This is my body, the body that God gave to me, and in the Bible it says for me to take care of this body. It's my temple. ... If you are not able to do with your body what you want to, then you have no rights whatsoever."

When asked to describe his previous chemotherapy treatment, the teen said, "It was worse than dying itself. It was more like torture."

Abraham is looking to stick to a diet of all-natural foods and nuts and take the Hoxsey Treatment from Tijuana, Mexico.

"The diet is an anti-cancer diet which further enhances the immune system; so the three factors, the supplement, the diet and the herbs allow your body to kill off its own cancer," Dr. Allen Chips, who researched the treatment told WVEC-TV in Norfolk.

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