How much jurisdiction do we have over our kids’ lives, anyway?

What would you do if you were told your child has a few months to live, but there was nothing doctors can do…with the treatments available to them…? What if there are other treatments available elsewhere- expensive treatments that might offer a sliver of hope?

What if you have money, tied up in property abroad, and were determined to do everything you could to try and save your child’s life, even when you’ve been told it is futile? I doubt I would be as brave as the Ashya Kings’ parents, but I sure as hell would question those doctors and their prognosis for the rest of my life.

I returned to Gatwick after two weeks away to an unusual new security measure. At the gate, the immigration officer took the time to ask us if our children were indeed ours, and then, slightly baffled by the question- after all, we all share the same last name as well as obvious gene pool, they said the kids’ names to check they responded.

It seemed a little heavy handed, but when I regained cellular data, I worked out why security proceedings may have been stepped up. Ten year old Ashya King has been “abducted”. Taken out of the country contrary to medical advice – by his parents- seeking a cancer treatment largely unavailable on the NHS.

The police response seems overzealous. Internal extradition proceedings are underway, despite Mr King’s impassioned YouTube video showing the child safe, if not exactly well. But since when did taking one’s own child abroad become a crime, even when their health is at risk? Do parents really become criminals when they go against medical advice?

Hampshire police have released a statement saying their actions are warranted as Ashya is in grave danger.

The Kings, are, by some accounts, Jehovah’s Witnesses. I can’t say I know much about the religion: be it a cult, movement or legitimate practise. I do know they have some wacky ideas about not celebrating birthdays, and refusing blood transfusions. But does this means that the Kings’ views should not taken into account when it comes to their son’s life – which, by all accounts is under serious threat from a type of brain cancer?

I’m no oncologist. I have no way to know whether the Kings are completely misguided: whether they are seeking alternatives to the conventional radiotherapy treatments offered on the NHS for this type of cancer, or whether this is a last ditch attempt to save their son’s life, having been told nothing more can be done.

The Kings are said to be raising funds for the controversial Proton Beam Therapy Treatment, which some believe is less invasive and potentially less damaging than radiotherapy for their son, who has been given four months to live by NHS doctors.

A new Proton Therapy centre is scheduled to open in the capital in 2018. There is obviously a demand for this type of treatment, and presumably it has some success, otherwise there would be no need to fill this demand at such massive cost, given our health service appears to be on its knees.

But when the same treatment was sought, in a previous case, by Sally Roberts, who disappeared with her son Neon, suffering the same type of cancer as Ashya King, she was forced by court order to give him radiotherapy against her wishes. Written off by the press- and the courts- as alternative health nutcase who flouted medical advice to put her son at risk with experimental treatments, Roberts lost her fight, and custody of her son in her bid to avoid treating him with pre-emptive radiotherapy – which can have life long, life-limiting side effects – to avoid his cancer returning, although he was in remission at the time. Doctors argued Neon would have died without treatment. She believes the procedure, was unnecessary, invasive and damaging. But Neon is still alive.

I can’t argue the rights and wrongs here. Like I say, I’m no specialist. Can we criticise any parent doing what they think is best for their child, in the Kings’ case, selling their property in Spain to raise funds to try a treatment not currently available on the NHS, even if it only offers the slimmest hope? Should medics have a right to force parents to follow their advice, whatever evidence based, cost effective treatment they may propose – and we are lucky to have an NHS to provide it – when parents have legitimate concerns and have investigated reasonable, lawful alternatives? If doctors have that power, than I say we are in extremely dubious ethical waters.

The police chase across Europe seems ludicrous; the idea that these parents are irresponsible seems hamfisted, given the medical equipment and information with which they have set themselves up; the fact they have been taken away in chains, unnecessarily cruel. It smacks of law enforcement for appearances sake, making up for well documented child protection shortfalls elsewhere.

In a world gone mad, where parents all over the country put their children at very real medical risk of cancer and diabetes through habitually poor diets; and young rape victims are given forced abortions by authorities who take the side of the perpetrators, it seems ridiculous that the police have chosen to go on wild goose chase over parents who, rightly or wrongly, seem only desperate to do the best for their son, at whatever cost to themselves.