Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Religion, Society

Minnesota Mom Flees with Ailing Son To Avoid Chemotherapy

medical symbolColleen Hauser and her son, Daniel, have disappeared in the wake of losing the court fight to block chemotherapy needed to save Daniel’s life. He is suffering from Hodgkin’s lymphoma and an x-ray on Monday showed that the tumor had grown.

As discussed earlier, Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg found the parents were medically neglecting him, held the mother in contempt, and issued an arrest warrant for Colleen Hauser. The father, Anthony Hauser, denies knowing where they are.

Daniel, who has a learning disability and cannot read. What is different about this case is that the parents are Roman Catholic, not a faith that inherently rejects modern medicine. However, they follow the “do no harm” philosophy of the Nemenhah Band, a Missouri-based religious group that believes in natural healing methods of American Indians. Nemenhah Band is a distinct Indian tribe.

Followers of this herbal movement insist on treating cancer with herbal remedies and vitamins.

The founder of Nemenhah, Philip Cloudpiler Landis, says that he does not support the flight.

The case has some similarity to a recent Australian case.

If Colleen Hauser succeeds, her son has over a 90 percent chance of dying with her beliefs intact.

For the full story, click here.

12 thoughts on “Minnesota Mom Flees with Ailing Son To Avoid Chemotherapy”

  1. Bron98
    You’re welcome. You may want to revisit the site, I find it interesting and educational.

  2. Teen in Chemo Fight Taken From Parents
    AP
    posted: 10 MINUTES AGO
    comments: 235
    filed under: Health News, National News
    PrintShare
    Text SizeAAA
    MINNEAPOLIS (May 25) — A 13-year-old cancer patient and his mother are back in Minnesota after fleeing nearly a week ago to avoid court-ordered chemotherapy, a sheriff’s office said Monday.
    The Brown County sheriff’s office did not provide more details. But Calvin Johnson, an attorney for the boy’s parents, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that Daniel Hauser was in the custody of child protection workers and had been taken to a hospital for a medical assessment. The boys’ parents were with him at the hospital, Johnson said.

  3. Home schooling resulting in illiteracy is child abuse, IMO. Running off with the child to avoid conventional medical treatment is, too.

  4. it is a no brainer with this particular disease. the child should receive conventional medical treatment given the probabilities of his chances of death and survival.

  5. Tsutsugamushi:

    thanks for the links, I always felt bad about telling my grandmother to get chemo and maybe she would die in her sleep of a heart attack and that cancer was a nasty way to die. She suffered with the chemo and did die but I think she suffered less than had she not done the chemo based on those links.

  6. When I first heard this story, I was very uncomfortable with interfering with parental rights and the fabled slippery slope. But the kid has an LD, can’t read, and is getting all his info on his disease from his mother, who may be a fruitbat. This kid is going to die, and I hope they charge her with murder.

  7. They fled into the waiting arms of Jesus, metaphorically and literally (for the boy).

  9. I have a good friend whose 15 year old son died of neuroblastoma last year. This is a kid cancer that has zero cure rate so far. There have been a number of trials that have delayed the disease while providing limited periods of remission but so far no one has been cured.
    I’ll bet she’d give just about anything to trade places with this mother who can only be described as ignorant and who seems to have a death wish for her son.

    Personally, I just can’t wrap my head around this.

  10. AY,

    If I remember right: 90% chance of survival with… 5% chance without…

Comments are closed.