A 13-year-old cancer patient and his mother, who fled Minnesota last week to avoid court-ordered chemotherapy returned to the state voluntarily on Monday, and the boy was examined by a doctor.
Daniel and Colleen Hauser arrived on a charter flight at 3 a.m., Brown County Sheriff Rich Hoffmann said. He did not say where the pair have been since they missed a court hearing last Tuesday, prompting a nationwide search, nor whether Daniel had received medical care for his Hodgkins' lymphoma while he and his mother were missing.
"It is a good day as Daniel and Colleen Hauser have been safely returned to Minnesota," Hoffmann said.
I've been following this story a little bit, kind of lost for exactly how to blog about it. The backstory is that the boy has a very treatable form of cancer, and his parents decided after one round of chemo that they wanted to treat him with alternative medicine in accordance with their religious beliefs. On one hand, it's obvious that actual science-based medical treatment is more effective, and of course I think that religious beliefs just aren't sufficient cause to deny the best, most effective treatment to a sick child.
On the other hand, it's cases like this that really show where religious ideas are more apt to affect someone at a desperate place in their lives, and cause them to make dangerous decisions--even if they are well-intentioned. I don't suppose that the Hausers actually mean for their child to suffer, and I don't think they want to deny him a long and healthy life. It's just that they arrived at a decision, for a number of reasons, that really could have lead to a bad outcome.
Religion preyed on some natural emotions in this case, I think. Parents do not want to see their child suffer, and unfortunately, the effects of cancer treatments can be very painful, and seem worse than the disease. Also, it is easy for people, especially when thinking of someone whom they love, to want to believe that it is impossible that that person will be taken away--they were in denial. Also, especially with a child, the parents may have felt some guilt, wondering how this could be happening to their child, who had done nothing to deserve to be in such pain and danger. Religion can definitely be a factor in enhancing this sense of being "punished" for something. To believe that their child is being punished is unthinkable--that they are being punished, or rather, "tested", through their child, imposes a need to show God that they are listening to Him. And that I think is what lead to all of the trouble here.
When all the while, it's just a part of life that people can get sick, and bad things happen. That we, as human beings, have found ways to treat illnesses by observation and study and experimentation, and we really can do things, like treat this boy's illness effectively, is also part of life. I want to be angry at these parents for denying such a rational course of action, but I find I understand what they were going through--even though I hate it.
I hope he is able now to get the treatment he needs, and does live a long and healthy life. I also hope they stop home-schooling this boy, because even though I can sympathize with their fears regarding his medical treatment, his home-schooling's having resulted in his being 13 years old and illiterate is frankly inexcusable.
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