Starchild Cherrix: Negotiating About Religious Beliefs and Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Abstract

Abstract Introduction This case-based resource uses the real-life story Abraham Starchild Cherrix, a teenager from Virginia. The case was full of teachable moments, including lessons about the right to refuse treatment, the rights of teens and their parents, the role of religious belief in medical decision-making, and the use of complementary and alternative medicine. As the patient and his parents were taken to court by the hospital, there are also valuable legal lessons in the case. Almost nothing in the case ended up as his doctors expected, showing the educational value of presenting and discussing his case. Methods The facilitator's guide provides a description of the case, the questions it raises, the lessons it teaches, and discloses its outcome. Results This case has been piloted in a third-year course called Professionalism and Clinical Ethics. The course director and students found the case thought provoking, stimulating, and informative. Discussion Facilitators may learn that today's medical students, and even residents, are more open to complementary and alternative medicine, including prayer, than was their own generation. Therefore, it helps for instructors to keep their own language very open-minded or neutral in order to encourage the students to voice what they think.

Keywords

• Health Equity Research
• Chemotherapy
• Treatment Refusal
• Teens
• Minors
• Right to Refuse Treatment