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Susan Wood ReportingThe 12-year old boy at the heart of a dispute over cancer treatment and parents' rights says he feels healthy and is no longer living in fear of state social workers taking him from his family. Parker Jensen and his family plan to continue speaking out on behalf of a family's right to look after itself.
Daren Jensen says the media is to thank for keeping his family intact. He says without the media's role in revealing how the government was intruding in his life, his children would be in foster homes and his son's life would be at risk, undergoing chemotherapy without his parents at his side.
Parker Jensen was back where he doesn't like to be today, in front of the microphone and camera. On KSL Radio's Doug Wright show, he and his dad said things are going well and they're tired of the negativity surrounding his case.
Parker is using immunotherapy, eating healthy food to fight off disease.
Parker Jensen: “Well I eat a lot of veggies now and fruit. I haven’t had a whole candybar in six months. I mean I’ll have a little bit of sugar here and then, but not a lot.”
It's a diet he started right after his tumor was removed last June. He is combining the diet with regular tests, which the Jensens say are coming back normal.
Daren Jensen, Parker's Father: “We were told that Parker had two weeks before it was too late back in June. It’s been six months now, so the facts are either our treatments working or the doctors still don’t…they’re still guessing.”
And now that Parker's care is left in the hands of his parents and not the state, he says he finally feels protected.
Daren Jensen says this is not an issue about treatment; it’s about choice. He says he should have the last decision about what's right for his son because he and his family have to live with it.
