How old is old enough to decide whether to live or die?

Josie Grove with her baby brother, Charlie, and mother Jacqui, two months before the teenager died Photo: NORTH NEWS AND PICTURES

Jacqui Grove wavered only once. For a fleeting second, she agonised. ''Should we be trying every single thing, anything that might produce a miracle and save Josie's life?'' she asked herself.

Before her on the table sat yet another letter from a well-meaning stranger. In it the author, who had read of Jacqui's daughter's decision to refuse further medical treatment, leave hospital and go home to her family to die, urged her to talk Josie into changing her mind, to try yet one more form of untested alternative medicine.

In that moment Jacqui thought of the pain and suffering her elder child had already endured. Of her quiet resolve, at just 16, to take control of her own life. Should she overrule her?

One quiet comment from her dying daughter banished those thoughts. ''Mum, I just wish people would stop trying to save me,'' Josie told her. ''I know they mean well, I know they are praying for me. But I just want to spend the time left with my family. Build up some memories for me and for you. I want to live before I die.''

Last year, on February 26, Josie Grove slipped into a coma and died with her mother and father beside her. Candles flickered in her bedroom in the family's Northumberland home, her favourite music played softly in the background. Her family told her how much they loved her and how she would remain forever a cherished part of them.

Diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia at 14, Josie had two failed bone marrow transplants and countless rounds of agonisingly painful and debilitating treatment. Then, one day, she decided she had had enough. Her cancer was incurable: the consultants had been straight with her. The new treatment they were proposing was unlikely to help. At best it would prolong her life, albeit briefly. But there would be a price. She would spend hours in hospital. They would try to ease her suffering but the treatment would be agonising and her chances of surviving it low.

''Josie thought about it all carefully,'' her mother says. ''For us to force more treatment on her would have been downright cruel, I'm convinced of that. Josie, like all teenagers with incurable cancers, was forced into a very grown-up world much too soon. But she made up her own mind and she never changed it. We respected that right and we will never regret doing so.''

Over the past week, Mrs Grove has been reliving the anguish of her daughter's decision. At just 13, Hannah Jones, from Marden in Hereford, has chosen the same route. She, too, has acute myeloid leukaemia and while a heart transplant could, possibly, save her life, her chances of surviving the operation are slim. She, too, has decided: ''I have had enough. I just want some pain-free time with my family. Then I will die.''

Jacqui Grove knows there are many – just as well-meaning as those who wrote to her while Josie was dying – whose convictions could never allow them to condone Hannah's decision.

''All I can say to them is that my daughter made her own choice about how she would die,'' Jacqui says. ''And, in a way, when she would die. She left this world peacefully, with a host of memories packed into her final months. Memories she could not have created without that small amount of time to live her life as she wished.

''We didn't selfishly agree to Josie's wishes to give us those memories but to give Josie those memories. We are grateful for the memories we have as a result but we wanted to allow her to live like a normal teenage girl, something she couldn't do with all the treatment. That is what Josie wanted. That is what we gave her. I have never regretted that.

"Hannah's parents have also chosen to respect their daughter's wishes. It is a brave decision for them. For us it was the right one. I believe it is the right one for them, too. When I read about Hannah, I thought: 'Just 13, so young.' But I didn't mean too young to make the choice she has, simply that she is so young to have to face this.''

In Britain, the law surrounding such decisions is vague. As an adult, the right to refuse treatment is enshrined in law. For those in their teens the courts can intervene. What is paramount are the child's "best interests".

In Hannah's case, a diligent doctor decided she should be taken from her parents and undergo the transplant operation, regardless of her wishes. To her family's bewilderment their local hospital, Hereford County, applied for a High Court order to remove Hannah from their care on the grounds that they were "preventing her treatment". It was only the last-minute intervention of a child protection officer that has allowed her to stay with her family for the remaining months of her life. The officer had a lengthy talk with Hannah and then persuaded the court that the order should be thrown out.

The moral and ethical issues surrounding a youngster's right to end their treatment have raised questions that have vexed ethicists, doctors, parents and politicians for decades. When, they ponder, is a child old enough to understand and give consent to complex medical treatments? How old is old enough to decide whether to live or die?

Almost all experts agree: age is all but immaterial, it is experience that counts. Priscilla Alderson, professor of childhood studies at the Institution of Education, says her research has found that even young children can give or withhold informed consent to medical procedures. Decisions about treatment, or even whether to live or die, cannot be based on age, she argues.

''Age isn't a helpful criterion,'' she says, ''but experience is.'' Hannah, she believes, is probably better qualified than many adults to come to her own decision. ''Hannah has had ample opportunity with eight years or more of close contact with invasive treatment. It appears that she has thought deeply about the cost of life and the cost of dying with dignity. She sounds remarkably wise. Most of all, she probably knows what it is like to face death.''

Jacqui Groves would agree. Her daughter knew she was dying and understood its finality. Her family used the analogy of the dragonfly to understand life's circle. How its larvae lie underwater gazing at the surface until they finally float to the top to break free as dragonflies. ''But they cannot go back down to tell others how wonderful it is,'' Jacqui explains. ''That is how Josie thought of death. Of course she knew the reality of dying, but that analogy helped her accept her death.''

Just before she died, Josie set up the Josie's Dragonfly charity to raise money to buy arts and crafts for terminally ill children, as well as giving one-off £500 grants in their final
months. In its first year it raised almost £167,000 but badly needs funds to continue its work.

''Josie worked hard with the charity in her last months and she would be so proud of the work it has done,'' says her mother. ''As well as giving money people can buy a range of silver and gold dragonfly jewellery. Five pounds of the cost of each piece goes to the charity. The dragonfly's life span symbolises Josie for us: fragile, free and tragically short.''

Her daughter's decision, she is convinced, was made only after much soul-searching. ''Children like Josie and Hannah are very involved in the details of their treatment,'' she explains. ''The consultants never lie to them. They tell them when a treatment isn't working and what, if any, options there are. They hear things we would prefer to protect children from but they need to hear them. The doctors are honest and realistic so that the child is aware of the seriousness of their condition. And aware of their own mortality. They have to deal with very adult issues.

''Josie certainly knew the reality of death. She had faced the possibility of dying all through her treatment. She knew what her chances were.''

It was after the failure of her second bone marrow treatment that Josie made up her mind. Her doctors told the family there was one treatment left but it would mean another round of painful hospital procedures, and the likelihood of Josie surviving was low.

The Groves took a barge holiday to think things over and, one morning, Josie told her mother: ''I've decided no.'' Her mother gently suggested she give it one more go but Josie was adamant. ''I would be hoping it doesn't work,'' she said. ''I don't want to go through any more.'' Josie never changed her mind and her parents respected her view.

''It isn't easy. In effect, we were letting our beautiful daughter die. But we allowed her to die in the way she wished. She was so very ill after each transplant, she couldn't face it all again. We had seen her in pain so often. It was a brave decision to make and, when she insisted it was what she wanted, I hugged her and told her I didn't blame her at all for making it.

''By the end she really had had enough. Josie knew that those who wanted her to keep trying did so out of hope and compassion. But, as she pointed out, she was the one enduring the treatment, the sickness and the pain. She didn't want to clutch at straws.''

The momentous decision made by Josie and Hannah is more common that we realise, Jacqui believes. ''Time and time again, through the charity, we meet parents who, having watched their child suffer terribly for a long time, say: 'Why don't the doctors just stop?'

''They know the medical profession wants to give their children every opportunity, every chance. But occasionally there comes a time, and these children often know themselves when it is time to say no.''

Lawmakers to seek ban on BPA

By Meg Kissinger of the Journal Sentinel

Federal and state lawmakers said Monday they would work to ban bisphenol A from food and beverage containers after a Journal Sentinel analysis found that even plastic products billed as "microwave safe" released toxic doses of the chemical when heated.

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said he will re-introduce a bill in Congress in January to ban BPA from food and beverage containers, citing the newspaper's analysis.

"This test of 'microwave safe' containers adds to the already vast and compelling body of knowledge indicating that BPA is dangerous and unsuitable for all food and beverage containers," Markey said.

The newspaper reported Sunday that all 10 products it had tested leached toxic doses of the chemical when heated.

The newspaper measured the amounts of the chemical released after heating, and it used this information to calculate how much BPA children of various ages and weights would consume if they were to eat from the products.

The Journal Sentinel then searched for studies in which scientists had looked at these levels of BPA exposure in live laboratory animals. It found 17 studies that showed harm at these levels - harm that included genital defects, behavioral changes and abnormal development of mammary glands. The changes to the mammary glands were identical to those observed in women at higher risk for breast cancer.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he, too, would renew his fight to have BPA removed from all children's products after reading the newspaper's analysis.

"Parents always err on the side of caution when it comes to their kids' health. We think that the law should do the same," Schumer said.

In addition to Congress, 13 states have proposed bans on BPA. Wisconsin is not one of them. But State Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point) said Monday that she is preparing legislation to ban BPA from children's products in Wisconsin.

Lassa, chairman of the state Senate's Committee on Economic Development, said she became concerned about the chemical last spring after learning that Canada was banning the chemical in baby bottles and children's products.

"It's scary stuff," said Lassa, who has children ages 4 and 17 months.

She said she buys food packaged in plastic for her children.

"It's so convenient," she said.

But the more she has learned, the more concerned she is.

"I'm horrified," she said. "The more chemicals we use, the more we are finding out how they impact the human body."

BPA, used to make baby bottles and the lining of metal food cans, including those containing infant formula, is tied to reproductive failures, breast cancer risk, diabetes and heart disease. A study last month found that it interferes with chemotherapy for breast cancer patients.

Lassa said she is consulting with Canadian lawmakers to see how they fashioned their ban. "The biggest question is how to enforce this," she said.

Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration declared BPA to be safe. But it reopened its examination after a subcommittee of an advisory board found that the agency had ignored valuable studies.

Markey held up the Journal Sentinel results to bolster his criticism of the FDA.

"Without strong, definitive action by the FDA, people across the country are left to wonder whether the foods and beverages they consume are tainted by BPA leaching from the containers, potentially causing serious long-term health problems," he said. "This is unacceptable."

There is no official test to declare a product "microwave safe." Companies are free to label their packages as they see fit, regardless of whether the package leaches BPA when heated.

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Oswald co-worker no longer silent about JFK assassination role

By HUGH AYNESWORTH / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

LEWISVILLE – Buell Frazier wants to tell it like it is – or was – on a very important day in U.S. history 45 years ago in Dallas.

The quiet, thoughtful man of 64 is not as well-known as some of the others who skyrocketed to fame or infamy in November 1963. But Mr. Frazier played a defining, if unintentional, role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

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He drove Lee Harvey Oswald to work that fateful Nov. 22.

And the Warren Commission, the investigative committee appointed to explain all aspects of Mr. Kennedy's death, claimed that Oswald carried his cheap mail-order rifle to work with him in Mr. Frazier's car.

That put Mr. Frazier in the spotlight immediately after Oswald was captured – and long afterward as a mourning nation sought to find an explanation to the tragedy.

With but a few exceptions, he has kept almost 4 ½ decades of angst, frustration, fear and occasionally even fury bottled up.

All Mr. Frazier did was offer a friendly gesture to a man he hardly knew.

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Offering a ride

In mid-September 1963, Mr. Frazier, 19, moved to Irving to live with his sister, Linnie Mae Randle, her husband and three children.

He slept on his sister's couch, drove a clunker Chevy and was pleased to be earning $1.25 an hour, then the minimum wage, at the Texas School Book Depository.

As a teenager in Huntsville, Mr. Frazier had deftly balanced high school and several part-time jobs while trying to stay out of the way of an abusive, alcoholic stepfather.

But things seemed to be looking up.

On Nov. 22, Ms. Randle and Mr. Frazier were finishing breakfast about 7:15 a.m. when she looked out her window and saw a man standing close to her brother's car with a package under his arm.

She had never met Oswald, but she knew who he was because Mr. Frazier had driven him to Irving on three or four occasions to visit his wife, Marina, and their two small daughters.

Oswald had ridden home with him the previous afternoon.

A few minutes later, Mr. Frazier and Oswald headed for the book depository, where they were to report at 8 a.m.

They talked a bit about children – Oswald always seemed pleased to relate stories about his girls, Mr. Frazier said – but drove much of the 15-mile trip in silence.

Even though the area was inundated with news reports about the president's visit to Dallas later that morning, Mr. Frazier said they never discussed it during the ride.

"Lee didn't talk much, ever," he said. "Some people talk a lot. He just didn't."

Less than four hours later, Kennedy was shot to death riding through Dealey Plaza.

And Mr. Frazier's life was turned upside down.

Brown paper package

Mr. Frazier was questioned vigorously by police – accused of being involved in the plot to kill Kennedy – and even told falsely by police officers that Oswald had named him as a co-conspirator. After 12 intense hours at the Police Department, he was allowed to take a polygraph test, passed it impressively and was released.

The fact that Mr. Frazier helped train Oswald at his new job (Oswald was hired at the book depository Oct. 16) and had driven him to Irving several times soon faded from most people's memories. But another factor remained noteworthy.

Officials assumed that the package Oswald carried to work that morning was the Italian-made rifle he used to kill Kennedy.

Mr. Frazier still doesn't believe it.

When Oswald got in his car that morning, Mr. Frazier hardly noticed the bundle Oswald laid on the back seat.

"He told me he was taking some curtain rods for his room," Mr. Frazier said. "I didn't think much about it."

Mr. Frazier parked his car behind the depository building and revved his engine for a few moments, charging his low battery, and watched Oswald walk about 200 yards into the building with the package under his arm.

In his testimony before the Warren Commission, Mr. Frazier said the brown paper package Oswald carried that morning was too short to contain a rifle. Oswald cupped the package in his hand, he said, and it fit under his armpit.

In Washington, Mr. Frazier said, he was "pressured" to change his recollection. In the days afterward, he was badgered by the media, harassed by people who didn't understand his relationship to Oswald and even became fearful for his life.

His testimony was important because investigators had proved that Oswald bought the rifle used in the JFK slaying and had found a matching palm print on the stock, but they had no proof that he had it with him that day.

Ms. Randle, who was also a leading witness, said recently that when she and Mr. Frazier testified before the Warren Commission, "they tried to get us to say that package was much longer than we recalled, but that wasn't true."

The commission kept pushing, Mr. Frazier said. Could it be that he was traumatized by the horror of what happened or embarrassed that he hadn't been more observant?

"I know what I saw," he said, "and I've never changed one bit."

Size dispute

Hundreds of conspiracy theories have spawned thousands of books and articles since the tragedy, but the official investigation concluded that Oswald shot Kennedy from the Texas School Book Depository and acted alone.

The Warren Commission cited eyewitnesses to the president's shooting and the later assault of Officer J.D. Tippit and knew that Oswald had bought the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle for $12.95 from a Chicago mail-order house.

A brown paper sack with an Oswald palm and fingerprint on it was found close to the sixth-floor window where Oswald sat perched in wait that day.

Oswald's claim that he was carrying curtain rods for his room carried little weight with investigators because no curtain rods were ever found in the depository, and Oswald's room on Beckley Street in Oak Cliff already had curtains.

In a book he's writing, Mr. Frazier describes how he and his sister assembled packages with wrapping paper for hours, trying to show Warren Commission lawyers the size of the package Oswald carried that day.

In its report, released in the fall of 1964, the commission said:

"The Warren Commission has weighed the visual recollection of Frazier and Mrs. Randle against the evidence here presented ... and has concluded that Frazier and Randle are mistaken as to the length of the bag."

The FBI lab reported that the disassembled rifle stock measured just under 35 inches long, and the homemade bag measured 38 inches.

"I wasn't surprised," Mr. Frazier said. "They seemed to have a prearranged agenda when they questioned Linnie and me. Our refusal to agree with their agenda simply caused them to state that we were mistaken."

Their testimony fostered early public doubt about the commission's investigation.

President Gerald Ford, who in 1963-64 was a Michigan congressman and a Warren Commission member, told reporters in Dallas in early 1964 that he thought Mr. Frazier had been mistaken.

"I don't believe for a moment that he was consciously lying," Mr. Ford said then. "This is a fine young man – I've talked to him – who recalls seeing an object a certain size. But if Oswald was carrying curtain rods, as Mr. Frazier claimed he told him, I am a bit confused as to what happened to them."

Mr. Ford told a Dallas Morning News reporter that day: "I have never believed Mr. Frazier was involved in anything more than being a good neighbor, a good friend. I don't think he even knew Oswald very well."

Actually, Mr. Frazier said, "I didn't know his last name until that day. We all just knew him as Lee. I thought that was his last name."

Years of reticence

For years, Mr. Frazier refrained from talking about his role that fateful Friday. He hasn't had a listed telephone number for years. Few people have visited his home.

In recent years, he has spoken briefly to university classes and others studying the Kennedy assassination.

And when a British production company staged a mock Oswald trial in London in 1986, Mr. Frazier was a star witness. He still considers that trip one of his "greatest experiences ever."

As the years went by, he served two stints in the Army, worked in Denver and Portland, Ore., with banks and an airline, and studied at Southern Methodist University.

He married in 1969 and had a son, Robert, now 29, who graduated from Texas A&M and is in the Army, stationed in South Korea. Mr. Frazier divorced in 1987 and married his current wife, Betty, in 1988.

Since 2002, he has worked for the Lewisville school board as the receiving clerk, handling desks, chairs and other equipment to stock the district's schools

Asked if co-workers know of his background, Mr. Frazier said: "Some do, on a limited basis."

He has mixed emotions about conspiracy theorists.

"Conspiracy theories are like noses," he said. "Everybody has one. No one has ever sold me 100 percent that Lee did it. If he did, yes, but some other people were involved in some way."

He admits that the circumstances of that November decades ago helped mold his life and personality.

"I have had to be more careful and aware of what is going on around me at all times. Being able to trust someone is very hard for me. I simply do not trust people in general."

And though he is no longer physically afraid, he's more comfortable staying anonymous.

"Though I did nothing wrong," he said, "some of them think I am guilty, that I was involved with him.

"And there are people out there still today who think that I helped him, that he and I were in cahoots on that, and you just never know who you're talking to.

His sister, Ms. Randle, is a retired nurse in her 70s who lives "in the country" outside Sulphur Springs. She agrees that Mr. Frazier is super-careful and somewhat withdrawn but says she understands why.

"Even my children, at the time, we just didn't talk about it because you just never know who you're talking to. There are a lot of kooks out there.

"We weren't ignorant, but we were very, very naive," she said.

Dave Perry of Grapevine, a friend of Mr. Frazier, said: "When we first met in 1990, he was very distrustful of me. After a very short period, we got off the subject of the assassination and into baseball.

"When we get together now," said Mr. Perry, a retired insurance executive and longtime JFK assassination researcher, "it's never about the assassination, but as close friends."

David Murph, director of church relations for Texas Christian University, and his wife, Jean, are also friends of the Fraziers. "He is an honest, gentle soul with a good heart who sees and believes in people," he said.

Mr. Murph says he hopes Mr. Frazier finds a publisher for his memoirs. "Buell's story is extremely important. It needs to be told."

Hugh Aynesworth is a freelance writer and author and was an eyewitness to the JFK assassination.

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