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Judge: Parents can’t refuse chemo for son on religious grounds

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Friday May 15, 2009

Mother claims son is a medicine man and elder in the Nemenhah Band

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge has ruled that a 13-year-old boy with a highly treatable form of cancer must seek conventional medical treatment despite his parents’ objections on religious grounds.
In a 58-page ruling Friday, Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg found that Daniel Hauser has been “medically neglected” and is in need of child protection services.
Rodenberg said Daniel will stay in the custody of his parents, but Colleen and Anthony Hauser have until May 19 to get an updated chest X-ray for their son and select an oncologist.
[...]
Daniel was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and stopped chemotherapy in February after a single treatment. He and his parents opted instead for “alternative medicines” based on their religious beliefs.
[...]
Child protection workers accused Daniel’s parents of medical neglect; but in court, his mother insisted the boy wouldn’t submit to chemotherapy for religious reasons and she said she wouldn’t comply if the court orders it.
Doctors have said Daniel’s cancer had up to a 90% chance of being cured with chemotherapy and radiation. Without those treatments, doctors said his chances of survival are 5%.
Daniel’s parents have been supporting what they say is their son’s decision to treat the disease with nutritional supplements and other alternative treatments favored by the Nemenhah Band.
The Missouri-based religious group believes in natural healing methods advocated by some American Indians.
[...]

- Source / Full Story: Judge: Parents can’t refuse chemo for son on religious grounds, AP via USA Today, May 15, 2009 — Summarized by Religion News Blog

“My son is not in any medical danger at this point,” Colleen Hauser testified. She also testified that Daniel was a medicine man and elder in the Nemenhah Band.
The mother said her son made the decision himself to refuse chemotherapy: “I think he understands he has the right to choose healthier forms of dealing with this cancer.”
Brown County disagrees, and pressed the case after Bostrom notified child protection authorities.
Daniel Hauser “does not have a complete understanding of what it means to be a medicine man or an elder,” Brown County Attorney James Olson wrote in a legal filing.
The Hausers, who are Roman Catholic, have eight children. Colleen Hauser told the New Ulm Journal newspaper that the family’s Catholicism and adherence to the Nemenhah Band are not in conflict, and said she has treated illness with natural remedies her entire life.
Nemenhah was founded in the 1990s by Philip Cloudpiler Landis, who said Thursday that he was one-fourth American Indian. Nemenhah adherents are asked to pay $250 to be members. “We’re non-dogmatic, a very universal faith,” Landis said.
Landis said he founded the faith after facing his diagnosis of a cancer similar to Daniel Hauser. He said he treated it with diet choices, visits to a sweat lodge and other natural remedies. Landis also once served four months in prison in Idaho for fraud related to advocating natural remedies.

- Source / Full Story: Judge to decide if family can refuse chemo for boy, Patrick Condon, AP via the San Francisco Chronicle, May 15, 2009 — Summarized by Religion News Blog