'It not only kills cancer, it kills everything in your body.' Teenage cancer patient refuses chemotherapy and gets put in state custody.

A Connecticut teenager refused to receive chemotherapy after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. As a result, 17-year-old "Cassandra C." has been taken into temporary custody by Connecticut's Department of Children and Families (DCF).

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Cassandra was diagnosed with the cancer in September 2014. With her mother's support, Cassandra refused the recommended treatment.

"She knows the long-term effects of having chemo, what it does to your organs, what it does to your body. She may not be able to have children after this because it affects everything in your body." said Jackie Fortin, Cassandra's mother, in a video on the Hartford Courant website. "It not only kills cancer, it kills everything in your body."

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According to Fortin, Cassandra has always been against chemotherapy, and would have always chosen to opt out.

Cassandra believes the chemo will cause as much damage as the cancer itself, if not more. As Cassandra's cancer progresses, it takes away the body's ability to fight infection.

The DCF decided that Cassandra was not allowed to make this decision, regardless of her mother's support. She was taken into custody in November, and "her mother was ordered to cooperate with medical care administered under the agency's supervision," according to Fox News.

"This is her decision, and she's very intelligent enough to make this decision on her own," Fortin said. "She does not want poisons in her body, and she does not want to be forced through the state or the government to force her to do such a thing. And right now, at this moment, she is being forced chemo upon her against her wish."

Chemotherapy has horrible side effects including nausea, hair loss, fatigue, diarrhea and vomiting. The person's whole body changes as it fights the cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.

After being forced to go through two chemotherapy treatments, Cassandra ran away.

Once she returned, she once again refused treatment. This time her doctors testified at a court hearing, and Cassandra was removed from her home and put back in DCF custody. DCF gained the control of her medical decisions.

Cassandra and her mother filed an appeal and their case will be heard by the Connecticut Supreme Court in Hartford. "It's a question of fundamental constitutional rights-- the right to have a say over what happens to your body-- and the right to say to the government 'you can't control what happens to my body,'" Cassandra's mother's attorney, Michael S. Taylor, told Fox CT.

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According to Connecticut's common law and public policy, DCF cannot force Cassandra to "receive medical treatment over her and her mother's knowing and informed objection."

There has never been a ruling on this type of issue to date, according to Taylor. This case will be significant for not only Cassandra and her family, but for the law as a whole.

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