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ACCOMAC, Va. (AP) -- An Accomack County Circuit Court judge granted a temporary stay for a 16-year-old Eastern Shore cancer patient who doesn't want to be forced by the state to undergo chemotherapy.

A juvenile court judge had ordered Starchild Abraham Cherrix and his parents to report to CHKD by 1:00 p.m. and denied a stay of that order.

But the Circuit Court judge Tuesday said Cherrix won't have to submit to treatment and also granted his parents full custody instead of having that custody shared with Social Services,

Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell filed a brief to the Circuit Court today supporting a stay, arguing that Abraham deserves the right to appeal the order to the Circuit Court before undergoing medical treatment.

After Tuesday's ruling, McDonnell said, "I applaud the Circuit Court's action in ordering a stay of the lower court order that Abraham Cherrix must receive chemotherapy beginning today. As our amicus brief noted, all citizens are entitled to the right to appeal a district court case, and to have their cases heard anew in the circuit court. That is why we filed our amicus brief. It would have been a violation of Abraham Cherrix's due process rights if the lower court order had been implemented prior to an appeal. The interests of justice required that a stay be granted. Our thoughts and concerns are with Abraham and his family as they continue their battle against cancer."

Abraham said three months of chemotherapy last year left him weak, and he refused a second round when he learned early this year that his Hodgkin's disease was active again.

He chose instead to go on a sugar-free, organic diet and take herbal supplements under the supervision of a clinic in Mexico.

A social worker then asked a judge to require the teen to continue conventional treatment.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)