They increasingly turn to alternative therapies:
“Teenagers don’t really have the full capacity to understand the broader picture, ” said Kara Kelly, a pediatric oncologist at Columbia University.
She worries that teens don’t realize the consequences of their decision and if alternative therapy doesn’t work, they could be putting their lives at risk.
A number of studies show “adolescents have some difficulty understanding the finality of death,” said University of Florida professor of psychology Jay Reeve. This could, in turn, “impact the ability to make well-balanced life or death decisions.”
