(UNDATED) A Minnesota judge has ordered medical treatment for a teenager with cancer whose parents believe their son is a medicine man.
Doctors have said the boy could die without conventional treatment.
The parents of Daniel Hauser, 13, consider him to be a medicine man in the Nemenhah Band and Oklevueha Native American Church of Sanpete, which have a “do no harm” belief and advocate natural healing methods.
Doctors have testified that Hauser had a 90-percent chance of survival if he was treated with chemotherapy and radiation, and about a 5-percent chance without it.
James R. Olson, the attorney for Brown County, argued that the parents’ treatment of their son with a special diet and vitamin and mineral supplements “does not relieve them of their duty to seek necessary medical care.”
Brown County District Court Judge John R. Rodenberg has not yet ordered chemotherapy, but determined Thursday (May 14) that there is a “compelling state interest” to override the opposition of Daniel and his parents, Colleen and Anthony Hauser, of Sleepy Eye, Minn.
“A parent may exercise genuinely held religious beliefs,” he said, ” but the resulting conduct, though motivated by religious belief, must yield when — judged by accepted medical practice –it jeopardizes the life of a child.”
He ordered the family, which also attends a Catholic church, to get their son X-rayed and choose an oncologist before a review hearing on Tuesday.
Rodenberg said it is possible that it may be “too late” for chemotherapy to help the teen. If the judge determines Daniel Hauser should have the chemotherapy, and the family refuses to comply, the teen would be transferred to the county’s custody.
“They’ve having a difficult time right now,” said Philip J. Elbert, Daniel’s lawyer, when asked Friday how the family reacted to the order.
He said the Indian Child Welfare Act, which could have prevented the court order, does not apply to the family because it is not Native American.