When Medicine and Religion Conflict Around Children: The Case of Daniel Hauser
When Daniel Hauser and his mother, members of new Native American religion the Nemenhah Band, opted out of chemotherapy and fled to Mexico, the media were ready with a religion vs. medicine narrative.
Wendy Cadge, Religion Dispatches
Danny Hauser on May 8 (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Kyndell Harkness)
Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in January, just shy of his thirteenth birthday, Daniel Hauser received one round of chemotherapy before walking away—well under the six treatments recommended by physicians. Despite chemotherapy’s 90% success rate, the Hauser family, who belong to a new Native American religious sect called the Nemenhah Band, opted to treat his cancer using natural healing remedies per the Nemenhah mission. Further, Daniel revealed to the court that he believed the chemo would kill him, later informing the judge in chambers that if forced into treatment he’d resist: “I'd punch them and I'd kick them.”
The case rose to public attention when Judge John Rodenberg ruled that Daniel’s parents were medically neglecting him by not pursuing the full course of chemotherapy, and ordered them to do so. Following the ruling, Daniel and his mother Colleen fled the state and headed for Mexico without notifying Daniel’s father of their plans. Judge Rodenberg, meanwhile, issued an arrest warrant for Colleen Hauser and ordered that Daniel be placed in foster care and evaluated by appropriate physicians. The arrest warrant eventually became a federal warrant involving the FBI, Interpol, and the national news media.
