Daniel Hauser, 13, is dying of cancer and needs chemotherapy. However, his mother, Colleen Hauser of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, is in court this week fighting the treatment on religious grounds. Hauser has Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but the family is against modern treatment on religious grounds and believes in healing cancer with herbs and vitamins . . . and prayer.
Colleen Hauser says that she learned about alternative healing techniques “on the Internet.”
She insists on the treatment (and says that her son agrees) despite the fact that (without treatment) his survival chances will drop to 5 percent.
Natural-health advocates have been at the court to support the family and Dan Zwakman, a member of the Nemenhah religious group to which family belongs, has spoken for the family. He has emphasized the group’s motto: “our religion is our medicine.”
This is an all too familiar case of parents putting their children a great risk due to religious beliefs — forcing courts to intervene. Unfortunately, many of these cases do not involve the courts until after the death of the child in the form of criminal charges against the parents, here.
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not only do these people have to deal with thier 13 year old baby boy dieing of cancer, but now, the government has interviened in thier way of life and COURT ORDERED them to use the SERVICES of a hospital that they dont want to use, they cant even live together as a family. it’s scary what the government is capable of. Chemo therapy is a SERVICE…that you PAY FOR. you dont have to buy it if you dont want it. What the hell? I hope they never find that kid. And i pray to god that he lives a good life while he is here, with cancer. Unfortunatly he has to live in mexico.
I must confess to searching online for medical treatment. My ugly mole has been reduced VERY SUBSTANTIALLY by applications of castor oil applied 2x/day. If cut out, I read, scar tissue could obscure any flare up, underlying, or remaining malady. Something like that.
LOTTAKATZ:
interesting thoughts. Maybe I do take that into account. Although most of the doctors we have surrounded ourself with are quite good and not arrogant and do provide excellent care. Medical knowledge is just now to the point of seeing some really fantastic breakthroughs in the near future.
I agree on the insurance angle, that is an unholy cabal (government and insurance) and I think it is one of the reasons our health care is so far out of wak with costs and care. I assume most people on this site to be in favor of national health care, but we ought to start out trying to revamp the insurance companies and how they do business.
Bron(various postings): “compelled to carry a child to term because it is best for the child…” “What if they went to a doctor and he approved their regime?” “If the government gets into the business of saving stupid people from themselves…”
The govt. already does with things like seat belt and helmet laws. Even so I think those were concessions to insurance companies. I wouldn’t enforce a seat belt law except on minor passengers in a car and wouldn’t ride 2nd seat on a motorcycle unless I had a helmet but wouldn’t make one mandatory for the driver.
I also wouldn’t trust any doctor to be competent that advocated a cancer treatment consisting of just vitamins and natural foods. We’re talking about religious fanatics that think their delusion will save their son, or won’t for some higher reason or purpose. These are crazy people.
I’m sorry your daughter is ill; I’m sure that and the limitations you’ve found with conventional medical care (and the relentless arrogance of some of its practitioners) may inform your position to some extent. Similar circumstances with chronic and on ocassion, life threatening illness has informed mine about medical care and that’s no joke.
I have family members with chronic illness’ that became complicated and life threatening and if I had a dime for every thoughtless, careless, arrogant b+++++d that I have had to deal with I’d be way better off financially than I am now.
They don’t all know nearly as much as they’d like you to believe and if it comes down to your well being v (some among them) their self-image or indifference then you lose. I have had to make decisions regarding treatment (or the withholding thereof) in the face of what I came to realize was a lack of medical best practices. It’s a scary position to be put in.
Having said that I do have some fair amount of respect for medical knowledge in the aggregate and would always opt for conventional methods being imposed on people not yet in a position to choose for themselves with whatever non-contravening supplementary treatment the guardians might wish to apply.
I make an exception for the children of fanatics that I would never apply to the adult fanatics exemplified by this case. Some ideas are like a pernicious infections on the body politic, culture and species in general. If these ideas (and their proponents) are self-limiting through their practice so much the better IMO.
The ‘Tab’ button just posted my previous comment! Magic.
Part 2 I guess:
Gyges, TSMD one of my first SF reads and it still resides fondly in my memory along with ‘The Demolished Man’. I think my stint as a labor advocate was born in the slums of the corporate dominated worlds of ‘Gladiator at Law’ and ‘The Space Merchants’ by Poul and Kornbluth.
Fans are Slans 🙂
Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation
Deep space is my dwelling place
The stars my destination
Gyges;
“On a side note, there’s a difference between self-visualization, and the prayers of others.”
Gyges,
Absolutely correct. While there is much scientific evidence that is supportive of self-visualization, there is little of note on prayer by others. By the way read LK’s Spinrad story:
http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/spinrad/spinrad1.html
Possibly I’ve mentioned it before but The Stars My Destination is also one of my all time favorite SF novels. Great book, still viable and featured much precursors of the future. Don’t you see a time shortly in the future where succeeding corporate CEO’s have plastic surgery representative of their products, or founders. The new Microsoft boss being “plastified” to look like Bill Gates for instance and changing his name to same.
I often used “Tension, Apprehension and Dissension have begun” to relax me for job interviews or unpleasant meetings.
Lotta and Mike,
That reminds me of the Heinlein short story “Waldo.” A large part of my love for Science fiction comes from a two book anthology that my father has. That’s included in there as well as “The Stars My Destination,” “Re-birth,” “Brain Wave,” and “The Weaponshops of Ishtar,” all of which remain some of my favorite literature (I read them about twice a year).
On a side note, there’s a difference between self-visualization, and the prayers of others.
“Because an invisible man in the sky told me to!”
Millions have died because of religion, and as long as the insanity continues, many more will die.
“I have a good deal of contact with the legal profession ”
should read medical profession.