Jensen case raises thorny issues

Long before the case of Parker Jensen became a media event, it was a story of a mom and dad and their questions about mainstream medicine.

After doctors told Daren and Barbara Jensen their son had a rare form of bone cancer known as Ewing's sarcoma, they asked, are you sure? Where was the proof? How often had doctors treated this disease? Could the family get a second opinion?

And about treatment: Was chemotherapy the only option? Or is there something with less toxic and potentially harmful side effects? Something more holistic in approach?

In the absence of answers they felt were reliable, the family delayed following the course of treatment set out by Primary Children's Medical Center and began doing research of their own.

In the weeks that have followed the state's attempt to place Parker in state custody, the 12-year-old has become the poster child for a looming battle over parental rights. But his case also reflects a latent anxiety among a growing number of Americans about conventional medicine — and their willingness to try anything from magnets to wheat grass to cure their cancers.

Americans are taking the alternative route to solving a range of health-care problems with increasing frequency and spending an estimated $40 billion doing it.

The efficacy of many such therapies is still hotly debated, but both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health have offices of alternative medicine and conduct hundreds of millions of dollars worth of clinical health trials annually.

Confusion over the details of the Jensen case has fueled public angst. Citing privacy laws, Primary Children's and the laboratories that did Parker's pathology tests have declined requests for specifics. As a result, said Primary Children's spokesperson Bonnie Midget, media reports have contained inaccuracies.

Regardless, a flurry of e-mail and telephone calls to the Deseret Morning News expressed support for the Jensens' rights as parents to make medical choices for their offspring. Readers have also been critical of a medical establishment with a tendency to be "arrogant" and to "bully" vulnerable patients into treatments. Many also said they place their confidence in homeopathic remedies and want the right to explore those options, no matter what the illness.

Parker's story, which has received national attention, began without much fanfare with a small growth noticed last October on the floor of his mouth. According to the Jensens, Parker's dentist said it was a clogged saliva duct. When it hadn't disappeared after six months, the dentist referred them to an oral surgeon, who removed the nodule and sent it to the Laboratory Corporation of America in Kent, Wash.

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