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What rights do parents have when they disagree with doctors?


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SALT LAKE CITY — When a child is sick, parents go to doctors looking for a diagnosis, prescription or treatment plan. Sometimes they find conflict.

Such cases are rare, but the plight of Charlie Gard, the 11-month-old with a devastating mitochondrial disease who died Friday in the United Kingdom, has reminded the world that doctors and parents don’t always agree, sometimes with heartbreaking results.

Closer to home was the case of Parker Jensen, the Utah teen whose parents were charged with neglect and kidnapping in 2003 after they refused chemotherapy for him and fled to Idaho.

The Gard case has resonated with millions of people around the world, in part because it involves what seems to be the most basic of parental rights and responsibilities: the ability to make final decisions concerning the health and welfare of your minor children.

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Jennifer Graham

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