Judge rules family can't refuse chemo for boy

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Judge rules family can't refuse chemo for boy

 

By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press Writer

48 mins ago

MINNEAPOLIS – A Minnesota judge ruled Friday that a 13-year-old cancer patient

must be evaluated by a doctor to determine if the boy would benefit from

restarting chemotherapy over his parents' objections.

In a 58-page ruling, Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg found that

Daniel Hauser has been " medically neglected " by his parents, Colleen and Anthony

Hauser, and was in need of child protection services.

 

While he allowed Daniel to stay with his parents, the judge gave the Hausers

until Tuesday to get an updated chest X-ray for their son and select an

oncologist.

If the evaluation shows the cancer had advanced to a point where chemotherapy

and radiation would no longer help, the judge said, he would not order the boy

to undergo treatment.

However, he said, if chemotherapy is ordered and the family still refuses,

Daniel will be placed in temporary custody.

The judge wrote that Daniel has only a " rudimentary understanding at best of the

risks and benefits of chemotherapy. ... he does not believe he is ill currently.

The fact is that he is very ill currently. "

 

It was unclear how the medicine would be administered if the boy fights it. Dr.

Bruce Bostrom, a pediatric oncologist at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of

Minnesota, said last week he would have a hard time forcing Daniel to take the

medicine. Bostrom said Friday his hospital has psychologists, child life

specialists and other resources to help ease Daniel's fears. He also said an

ethics committee would meet next week to talk about all the scenarios doctors

may encounter.

Daniel's court-appointed attorney, Philip Elbert, called the decision

unfortunate.

 

" I feel it's a blow to families, " he said. " It marginalizes the decisions that

parents face every day in regard to their children's medical care. It really

affirms the role that big government is better at making our decisions for us. "

Elbert said he hadn't spoken to his client yet. The phone line at the Hauser

home in Sleepy Eye in southwestern Minnesota had a busy signal Friday. The

parents' attorney had no immediate comment but planned to issue a statement.

 

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 percent chance of being cured

with chemotherapy and radiation. Without those treatments, doctors said his

chances of survival are 5 percent.

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.

 

After the first chemotherapy treatment, the family said they wanted a second

opinion, said Bostrom, a pediatric oncologist who recommended Daniel undergo

chemotherapy and radiation.

They later informed him that Daniel would not undergo any more chemotherapy.

Bostrom said Daniel's tumor shrunk after the first chemotherapy session, but

X-rays show it has grown since he stopped the chemotherapy.

 

" My son is not in any medical danger at this point, " Colleen Hauser testified at

a court hearing last week. She also testified that Daniel is a medicine man and

elder in the Nemenhah Band.

The family's attorney, Calvin Johnson, said Daniel made the decision himself to

refuse chemotherapy, but Brown County said he did not have an understanding of

what it meant to be a medicine man or an elder.

Court filings also indicated Daniel has a learning disability and can't read.

 

The Hausers 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 that she has used natural remedies to treat illness.

Nemenhah was founded in the 1990s by Philip Cloudpiler Landis, who said Thursday

he once served four months in prison in Idaho for fraud related to advocating

natural remedies.

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.