This bring up a whole slew of issues

regarding religious, reproductive, and health care rights.

Judge Forces Hysterectomy on God-Loving Woman

A cancer patient in Montana -- identified only as L.K. -- refused to undergo a hysterectomy as treatment for her cancer on the grounds that she is deeply religious and wants to have children. That's sad enough in it's own right. But no one could have foreseen what happened next: A judge found her "mentally incompetent" based on her "delusional religious beliefs" and ruled she was to have the procedure.

State Supreme Court halts surgery to allow appeal in hysterectomy ruling

“Normally, we don’t force treatment on adults. Competent adults can refuse even lifesaving treatments on religious terms,” he said. “The challenge is to establish that they truly are incompetent and that they really do comprehend the risk posed to their life.”

Then there are degrees, so to speak, of religion, said John Stone of Creighton University’s Center for Health Policy and Ethics. People with well-established religious objections to medical treatments — say Jehovah’s Witnesses who refuse blood transfusions, even lifesaving ones – generally see those requests honored, he said.

I realise that in making this ruling, the judge is presumably trying to save this woman's life. The woman has stated that she believes God has cured her, but that she understands that doctors say she will die within three years without a hysterectomy (although she did reserve the right to change her mind later, it may be too late for her.)

But...

In this country, competent adults are afforded the right to refuse such treatment, including based on religious grounds. The courts usually get involved with cases like this when a child is involved.

So, does a belief that God can cure her make her delusional, and incompetent to make such a life-threatening decision for herself? Tell me, is it delusional to believe that bread and wine become flesh and blood? Is it delusional to believe a man spoke to God through a burning bush? Or that Mohammad ascended to heaven? My point is, religion often involves things that don't logically make sense. If all of those are delusional, then does that mean that many Christians, Jews, and Muslims have no right to determine their own health care?

On another front...we get to reproductive rights and mental competence.

Thing is, we used to sterilise the mentally incompetent and developmentally disabled in this country, and that practice is now condemned as unethical. While this woman's sterilisation would be a by-product of a life-saving procedure, it's still sterilisation, and it's the main reason she's balking. She wants children badly enough to risk her life. Is that delusional? Maybe, but I've known at least one woman that desperate who has, indeed, risked her life to have a baby. Most people consider her sane. In the end, shouldn't it be the woman's right to be sterile and alive, or fecund and in peril?