Judge rules family can't use religious objections to refuse chemo for 13-year-old son

[Zugzwang]

IF QC's opinion piece is accurate, than how exactly is this child legally informed?

You can argue it's just a hit piece, and they threw homeschooling in the mix, problem is though that most homeschoolers do much better than public/private schools, due to the 1v1, etc.

but they mentioned it in passing, and continued with the chemo story.

does this tidbit make ANY difference at all that maybe the parents aint upto snuff, and ur backing the wrong horse here?

just asking.

 

[probinson]

Ah. Just read a story that says the doctors are the ones that are behind the lawsuit. That makes sense. They stand to lose a bunch of money by not being able to force chemotherapy on someone who doesn't want it.

I really want to know. Does the judge's ruling mention who has to pay for this treatment?

 

[the.Sheepdog]

well with the child and mother missing right now I dont think it matters about the money. This situation has made the mother a fugitive.

 

[SurfedIT]

Just another case of our personal rights being taken away by power hungry, nosy, "I know what it best", people.

 

[Tenebrae]

Ah. Just read a story that says the doctors are the ones that are behind the lawsuit. That makes sense. They stand to lose a bunch of money by not being able to force chemotherapy on someone who doesn't want it.

I really want to know. Does the judge's ruling mention who has to pay for this treatment?

The ones that profit are the drug companies not the doctors.

 

[probinson]

The ones that profit are the drug companies not the doctors.

I would agree that drug companies stand to gain from this also, but have you taken a look at a doctor's bill lately? You think they don't make scads of money from administering these treatments?

We recently had to have my son's front tooth removed in a very simple outpatient procedure. Doctor's bill? $500, for a procedure that took 5 minutes.

Total bill, for a hospital visit totaling 3 hours (including 90 minutes in the waiting room prior to the procedure)? $3,600.

The doctors stand to make a huge profit from this.

 

[Questioning Christian]

The doctors are recouping their expense for medical school and then some.

It's the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[SpiritPsalmist]

well with the child and mother missing right now I dont think it matters about the money. This situation has made the mother a fugitive.

True. And if the boy dies, she will most likely be charged with murder or something close.

 

[Tenebrae]

I would agree that drug companies stand to gain from this also, but have you taken a look at a doctor's bill lately? You think they don't make scads of money from administering these treatments?

We recently had to have my son's front tooth removed in a very simple outpatient procedure. Doctor's bill? $500, for a procedure that took 5 minutes.

Total bill, for a hospital visit totaling 3 hours (including 90 minutes in the waiting room prior to the procedure)? $3,600.

The doctors stand to make a huge profit from this.

Maybe more so in America, the doctors here wouldnt do that well.

Dentists on the other hand Sometimes wish God called me to be a dentist or a doctor, its a heck of a lot better paid and a better position than the lowly nurse

 

[Questioning Christian]

UPDATE:


NEW ULM, Minn. — The search for a Minnesota mother who fled with her 13-year-old cancer-stricken son to escape court-ordered chemotherapy has turned to Southern California where authorities say the two were spotted Tuesday night.

A proponent of natural medicine, who launched a similar battle against chemotherapy in 1994, says he would hide the boy if necessary.


Authorities initially suspected that Daniel Hauser and his mother Colleen might be on the run with Boston resident Billy Best, who as a teenager in 1994 ran away from home to escape chemotherapy for cancer similar to Daniel's.


Best, who says he was cured by natural remedies, had appeared at a news conference in Minnesota recently to support the Hausers.


Best, in a phone interview, said he was in Boston and hadn't talked to the Hausers since they fled. He said he last saw the family May 9 when he was in Minnesota for court hearings.


But he told the Boston Herald in an interview that appeared on the newspaper's Web site Thursday he would do "anything" to help Hauser, including hiding him from authorities.


"I've been really upset about this case," Best said Wednesday during a phone interview with the Associated Press. "I don't know what to do. I want to help. I want to help them in any way, if they need a place to stay, or someone to talk to, I just want to do whatever I can for them, but I can't."



Best, now 31, was 16 when he was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma in June 1994. He had five chemo treatments at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston before he told his parents he couldn’t take anymore and fled to Texas.


“I had already lost so much weight and my hair and there’s a taste that comes with it. It’s a metal taste in your mouth,” he told the Boston Herald. “You start falling apart. I was listening to my body and I didn’t think I could handle another one.”


Best spent three weeks in Houston but returned home when his parents promised they wouldn't force him to have the chemotherapy.


"The reason I left is because I could not stand going to the hospital every week," Best wrote in a note to his parents. "I feel like the medicine is killing me instead of helping me."


Best credits the natural blood cleanser Essiac, which his family sells on its Web site, and other herbal supplements and dietary changes for curing him.



He has been cancer-free since July 1995.


Click here to read more at the Boston Herald.


Officials leading the search acknowledged that Colleen and Daniel Hauser may already be in Mexico, possibly to seek treatment for his Hodgkin's lymphoma.


Authorities believe the mother and son fled Monday after a court-ordered X-ray showed the tumor in Daniel's chest was growing. Doctors have said the tumor will likely kill Daniel without conventional treatment, but Colleen Hauser favors the natural healing methods of an American Indian religious group known as the Nemenhah Band.


Colleen Hauser's husband, the local sheriff and the Nemenhah Band's founder hoped the mother would return home with Daniel. But the pair proved they wouldn't be traced easily.


"I just wish we could get to Colleen and tell her to come in," Brown County Sheriff Rich Hoffmann said. "This is not going to go away. It's a court order." He said Hauser's husband was cooperating with investigators.
Colleen and Daniel Hauser were seen as recently as Tuesday morning in Southern California, and authorities said they believed the two were headed to Mexico. They would only say the pair's location was based on "reliable information."


Hodgkin's lymphoma is a highly curable form of cancer when treated with chemo and radiation. But the teen and his parents rejected chemo after a single treatment, with the boy's mother saying that putting toxic substances in the body violates the family's religious convictions.


Hauser said she had been treating the boy's cancer instead with herbal supplements, vitamins, ionized water and other natural alternatives — a regimen based mostly on information she found on the Internet.


The Hauser family had been ordered to appear before a judge Tuesday for a hearing to consider chemo. But mother and son failed to show and a warrant was issued for the mother's arrest.


Daniel's father, Anthony Hauser, said in an interview Wednesday at the family's farm near Sleepy Eye, a town of 3,500 people about 80 miles (130 kilometers) from Minneapolis, that his wife and son left without telling him their plans, and that he hadn't heard from them.


He said he hopes his wife is either getting their son treatment for his illness

or will bring him home. "If he's being cared for, and it's going to help him, I think it's going to be a good thing," Anthony Hauser said.


James Olson, the attorney representing social service authorities in Minnesota, originally asked the judge to cite the father for contempt of court, but later backed off and said he believed Hauser didn't know the

whereabouts of his wife and son.


An alert issued to police departments around the country said mother and son might be traveling with a California lawyer named Susan Daya. Daya didn't return telephone messages Wednesday.


The Nemenhah Band, based in Weaubleau, Missouri, advocates healing methods tied to American Indian practices. The Hausers are not American Indian.


Phillip Cloudpiler Landis founded Nemenhah about a decade ago and calls himself its principal medicine chief. He said it was prompted by his own bout of cancer, which he claims to have cured through diet, visits to a sweat lodge and other natural remedies.


Landis served several months in prison in Idaho for fraud tied to the sale of natural remedies. Nemenhah members are asked to pay $250 to join and an annual $100 fee.


On Wednesday, Landis renewed his hope that Colleen Hauser return to Minnesota with her son. "Running away when there is a court order is not the way to handle it. Go home. That's the official position of the church. Go home Colleen," he said.