The question of whether a person under the age of 18 should have the right to make decisions about their own medical treatment under a concept called the “mature minor doctrine” will have to wait for another day in Connecticut.

In a widely watched effort, lawyers for a 17-year-old girl with Hodgkin’s lymphoma tried something never before attempted in the state. They asked the Connecticut Supreme Court to recognize a minor’s right to make her own medical decisions, based on her individual level of maturity. A Windsor Locks teen, referred to by the courts as Cassandra C., had been ordered by the Department of Children and Families to undergo chemotherapy after she attempted to refuse the treatment. She and her mother have called the chemotherapy drugs “poison.”

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