Nightmare Parents

"It's a nightmare [leukemia diagnosis]. The world came crashing down on him pretty hard."
"I really can't see it [chemotherapy protocol] being a benefit to my little man."
"She [his wife] got bullied into agreeing to the chemo because she wanted to be with her kid. I can understand why she did it."
"But at the same time, I've showed her all the information. Up until they were threatening to take my boy, she would have been all for the oil [alternate therapy]."
"I'm not budging. I'm his father. I'm supposed to be the wall."
"All my rights as a parent have been removed. I don't get to see my kid at all. He's gone."
Marco Pedersen, 23, Ottawa

18-month-old Aiden Pedersen, the toddler at the centre of a dispute over chemotherapy treatment, with his father, Marco Pedersen.

"We're obliged under the Child and Family Services Act to report to the CAS. The CAS is then the arbiter of determining what's in the child's best interests."
"It doesn't have to be as extreme as apprehending the child. They have a number of options to try to help a decision to be made."
"We deal with thousands of patients, many dealing with cancer or other life-threatening conditions. We work very closely with them to give their children the best care possible."
Eva Schacherl, spokeswoman, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

"All the parents are asking for is time to make an educated decision, and they feel they have not been informed of all the options. [Instead they were] threatened and publicly berated by the attending doctor."
"However, this child's life is at risk, and every parent has a right and responsibility to protect their child from unsafe, bad policy."
Jeninifer Collett, patient advocate, director, Canadian Medical Cannabis Partners

"Unsafe, bad policy." That's quite the condemnation of solid, workable, proven medical intervention responding to life-and-death threats against the life of a child. In her position as an advocate and spokesperson for a cannabis group, this woman speaks of a parent's right and responsibility but it is the abdication of this particular parent's responsibility to his child's welfare, when he has chosen instead an avenue certain to lead to the 18-month-old's death that has removed his 'right' to protect.

In fact, this man, Marco Pederson, has demonstrated more than ample proof that he is more invested in aggressively asserting himself as a point of personal undertaking through sheer ignorance and stupidity and in so doing committing himself to child neglect at a time when his child most requires its parents to act in his best defence, as loving and caring adults. Instead, Mr. Pederson has embarked on an atrociously sanctimonious journey of child abuse.

The year-and-a-half-old child has just recently been diagnosed with leukemia. Doctors at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), a public health institution well regarded for its superlative medical care of children, informed Mr. Pederson and his 20-year-old wife Erica O'Lane that their son Aiden required immediate chemotherapy treatment to respond to the health threat against his life.

However, the child's grandfather associates with a cannabis crusader claiming to have developed an oral hemp oil treatment capable of curing a horde of illnesses, including cancer. This assurance is good enough for Aiden's father who is convinced chemotherapy would do the opposite of the hemp oil; amazingly, the former likely to harm the child, the latter certain to cure him. So that when he and his wife withheld consent for chemotherapy the Ottawa Children's Aid Society was contacted by CHEO.

The Children's Aid Society conducted an investigation which led them to approach Family Court for a removal order to allow them to take custody of Aiden from his parents. Once it was clear the court order would be forthcoming, Aiden's mother decided to sign a consent form for chemotherapy to proceed. This has enabled the child to receive the treatment his medical condition urgently requires and to have his mother with him.

Her husband, Aiden's father, was angered when CHEO doctors had refused his request that they consider alternatives to chemotherapy. They refused his request for a second opinion (note that the issue refers to a number of doctors at the hospital being involved; second opinions take place when one doctor's diagnosis is under question). The father asserts that doctors refused to release test results and their diagnoses notes.

Aiden's parents were given until September 29 to present evidence to the cout that hemp oil, orally administered, representss a credible alternative to chemotherapy. Once considered a death sentence, childhood leukemia treatment has been dramatically improved in the last decade and more. Five-year survival rates for some forms of childhood leukemia approach 90%. A proven fact that hasn't convinced Aiden's father.

"If he'd had this oil administered starting today, I honestly feel he'd be a really healthy little boy", he said, placing more trust in the promise of a dangerous charlatan than that of proven medical science where positive outcomes are there to be seen. This child had the grave misfortune to be born to an utter dunce given to dangerously ignorant beliefs that could be dreadfully injurious to the welfare of the child.