Family issues rallying cry

Doctors said Parker Jensen's cancer would be fully metastasized within two weeks of his diagnosis last spring. But five months later, that hasn't happened and the boy is "feeling fine," according to a letter written by family and friends of Daren and Barbara Jensen that was provided to the Deseret Morning News Thursday.

"It has been almost a year since his original growth was found and he is feeling fine," the letter states. "No one has been able to independently confirm that Parker has what his doctors said he has. And this greatly influences the type of chemotherapy or other treatment that might be needed."

For these reasons, Daren and Barbara Jensen are fighting attempts by the the state's Division of Child and Family Services and the Utah Attorney General's Office, which have sought to place Parker in state custody and force the 12-year-old to undergo chemotherapy treatments, said Kelly Jarvis, a close family friend who helped craft the statement.

"It's a composite of close friends and family, of what they understand to be the family's experience," Jarvis said of the letter. "It was done so that something could come out that gave some details that haven't been brought out yet."

Those who know the Jensens are struggling to understand how the state could fail to distinguish between a family that abuses a child and puts that child in danger and a family that is told a child's life is in danger from illness and is then trying to do something, Jarvis said.

"It's disbelief," he said.

The letter, which is addressed to "All Utahns Interested in Preserving the Sanctity of Parental Rights," appears in its entirety here.

Juvenile Court Judge Robert Yeates ordered Parker Jensen, 12, into state's custody Aug. 8. He was then to begin chemotherapy treatments for the rare form of bone cancer from which doctors have said he suffers. But the Jensen family was not at home when the state came to retrieve the boy.

Now his parents — Daren, 38, and Barbara, 36 — are accused of kidnapping their child. Daren Jensen was arrested in Pocatello, Idaho, Aug. 18 after a traffic accident but is out of jail on $50,000 bond. He is fighting extradition to Utah. A warrant was also issued for Barbara Jensen, but she and Parker have not been found by authorities.

Privacy laws and other state laws have prohibited state and hospital officials from discussing the case. Juvenile Court Judge Robert Yeates also issued an order preventing those involved from speaking about it to news media.