OH JESUS... "Mother, Son Missing In Forced Chemo-case"

(CNN) -- A Minnesota judge issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for the mother of Daniel Hauser, a 13-year-old boy who is refusing treatment for his cancer, after neither she nor the boy showed up for a court appearance.


Doctors say Daniel Hauser's lymphoma responded well to a first round of chemotherapy in February.
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"It is imperative that Daniel receive the attention of an oncologist as soon as possible," wrote Brown County District Judge John R. Rodenberg in an order to "apprehend and detain."

"His best interests require it," Rodenberg wrote.

The judge had scheduled the hearing to review an X-ray ordered by the court to assess whether Daniel's Hodgkin's lymphoma was worsening.

The boy's father, Anthony Hauser, did appear at Tuesday's hearing, where he testified that he last saw the mother, Colleen Hauser, at the family's farm on Monday night, when she told him she was going to leave "for a time."

He said he did not know where they had gone.

During the hearing, Dr. James Joyce testified he saw the boy and his mother on Monday at his office. He said the boy had "an enlarged lymph node" near his right clavicle and that the X-ray showed "significant worsening" of a mass in his chest. In addition, the boy complained of "extreme pain" at the site where a port had been inserted to deliver an initial round of chemotherapy. The pain was "most likely caused by the tumor or mass pressing on the port," testified Joyce, who called the X-ray "fairly dramatic" evidence that the cancer was worsening.

Rodenberg ordered custody of the boy transferred to Brown County Family Services and issued a contempt order for the mother.

A call to the family's home in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, was not immediately returned.

Philip Elbert, Daniel's court-appointed attorney, said he considers his client to have a "diminished capacity" for reasons of his age and the illness and that he believes Daniel should be treated by a cancer specialist.

Elbert added that he does not believe Daniel -- who, according to court papers, cannot read -- has enough information to make an informed decision regarding his treatment.

Daniel's symptoms of persistent cough, fatigue and swollen lymph nodes were diagnosed in January as Hodgkins lymphoma. In February, the cancer responded well to an initial round of chemotherapy, but the treatment's side effects concerned the boy's parents, who then opted not to pursue further chemo and instead sought other medical opinions.

Court documents show that the doctors estimated the boy's chance of 5-year remission with more chemotherapy and possibly radiation at 80 percent to 95 percent.

But the family opted for a holistic medical treatment based upon Native American healing practices called Nemenhah and rejected further treatment.

In a written statement issued last week, an attorney for the parents said they "believe that the injection of chemotherapy into Danny Hauser amounts to an assault upon his body, and torture when it occurs over a long period of time."



Medical ethicists say parents generally have a legal right to make decisions for their children, but there is a limit.

"You have a right, but not an open-ended right," Arthur Caplan, director of the center for bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said last week. "You can't compromise the life of your child."

People are insane.

Officer "observed" he "appeared" to be on PCP. No physical evidence. The man could have as easily been psychotic.


Not taking you to task, but that's how urban legends start.

:sarcasm:

Don't care about PCP. Care very much about the truth, & that article was unsubstantiated flamebait.

Apparently you fell for it, Gull Ible.

:not sarcasm:

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:shrug:

What a story. I bet it will be made into a Lifetime channel movie.

Get a grip, they're just on loan to you and you can decide some things for them, but if you start risking their lives, the state has a vested interest in stepping in.

I hope this mother is ready to have a dead kid because if she manages to delay his treatment much longer, that's what she'll have.

and I agree 100% with what you said.

the first round of chemotherapy.

In a written statement issued last week, an attorney for the parents said they "believe that the injection of chemotherapy into Danny Hauser amounts to an assault upon his body, and torture when it occurs over a long period of time."

I bet if it their son had committed the sin of having gay sex, they'd feel a LOT differently about his ability to "choose." Or if their daughter had chosen to have an abortion without their consent.

The truth is that I actually agree. I think the age of majority should be closer to 14 than 18. But even still, I can smell hypocrisy a mile away.

14 year olds should not be given the ability to choose whether or not a medical procedure is good for them.

THEY ARE FUCKING 14. I had no clue about a lot of the things being done to me at 14 and I was in neurologists every few weeks for years as a kid. They told me to take a pill and I took it. They told me to get an MRI and I got one. I had no real concept of what was really wrong with me until after I was cured.

That's what it said in the newspaper. It didn't say he was homeschooled, but, it is likely.

he can't read. Why (if true)this 13 years old can't read?

Without chemo? Choosing caskets would be a suitable next step.
He is a kid. Kids don't much care for pain or discomfort, even when it is beneficial.
His parents are misguided here--for whatever reason.
That is why the judicial system stepped in.
Rightfully so.
I am guessing that if the kid dies, mama might not only be facing kidnapping and contempt of court charges, she might just be answering to manslaughter or, if the judge is a particular hardass, he might charge her with murder (depraved indifference).

So the delay in treatment is becoming critical. The odds for his survival decrease as the tumors increase in size and number. I hope they find him soon and put him in foster care, where the judge should have put him in the first place.

If he dies, I hope his parents are charged and sent to jail.

on a scale from 1 to 10, he said 10.

And the port they put in for the chemo is being displaced as the tumor grows, causing even more pain.

Those parents are nuts. And in a lot of trouble. She says she's 'treating' him with herbs and ionized water, and his tumor is right back to the size it was before the first round of chemo. When they find them, the child will be taken away from them and put into protective custody. And if he dies while she's on the run with him? Oh boy.

the way he suffered with the chemo. And no one is telling them the therapy is easy - I just wonder how they'll feel when he's literary gasping his last breath and morphine will hardly control the pain.

But suffering to get better and suffering while dying are two different things.

My dh went through cancer at age 25 - it was horrible to watch him suffer the side affects of chemo and radiation - but it was worth it. I'll never forget his doctor saying, "Well, we have some work to do, but we'll get through it."

Similar charges would be appropriate here as well

where an innocent life is at risk.

Can't even read. He's been dealt two strikes before he even got in the batter's box, and one is his wacko mother.

Some of the website appear to have been taken down. I'm curious where this family found the protocol they are supposedly following.

Hodgkins is curable in the vast majority of cases with the right treatment, and a death sentence without it. So what the parents are doing is equivalent to denying a child food and drink.

Just a terrible story.