Next Tuesday, Rifqa Bary turns 18, which should finally bring the legal aspects of this sorry saga to an end, though I would not be at all surprised to see her become a famous activist in the charismatic/intercessor circles to which she is tied (provided she can get her immigration status sorted out,) especially now that she is claiming that a recent faith healing cured her cancer:
Christian convert Rifqa Bary is refusing chemotherapy for cancer because she believes that she was cured at a faith-healing event, according to a motion in Franklin County Juvenile Court.
Rifqa was to undergo a year of chemotherapy after her cancer was surgically removed, the document filed by her parents states.
But Rifqa, who is in foster care, was taken to a faith-healing event in Youngstown a couple of weeks ago by Franklin County Children Services, without her parents’ consent, according to the document.
A motion to force treatment is to be considered today in Juvenile Court.
…
[T]ests have determined that Rifqa has a “rare form of cancer,” according to her attorneys’ court filings. Her supporters have said she has uterine cancer.
It’s unclear whether she is cancer-free at the moment. The Barys’ attorney, Omar Tarazi, said in a motion that Rifqa will need a hysterectomy if the cancer returns.
The Barys want to force chemotherapy and are concerned that their daughter could die without treatment, Tarazi wrote.
The irony, of course, is that Bary ran away from her parents, claiming that they were going to kill her for converting to Christianity. And now her parents are trying to force her to get chemotherapy because they are afraid that she will die without it, while Bary claims not to need it because her Christianity has cured her cancer.
