In the pages of Time magazine:
The story of a 13-year-old British girl who is refusing a heart transplant because she's already been through enough pain reminds me that when you're looking for the right answer, humility may be as essential as wisdom.
Hannah Jones' leukemia was diagnosed when she was 4; she later developed heart disease, and has endured chemotherapy and nearly a dozen operations. This past summer, when doctors told her that without a heart transplant she'd be dead in six months, she refused to go through with it. "I've been in hospital too much — I've had too much trauma," she told the Guardian. She was not asserting a right to die; she was suggesting that she had a right to live on her own terms, and to decide whether the benefit was worth the cost.
The article goes on to describe how this decision, or rather, the parent's acceptance of the decisions, led to the children's protective service to briefly intervene. They realized their error when they met Hannah and she explained herself. I think anyone would. Look at that picture. There's something about it. Can you imagine having to think that way as a 13-year old?
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