Setting precedent
Comments(2)
The case of Daniel Hauser, his family and government is a tough one. The 13-year-old boy has Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He had one round of chemotherapy and his parents decided to discontinue the treatments, because of religious beliefs. They want to treat Daniel with “alternative” medicines.
Now, I see nothing wrong with “alternative” medicines. I firmly believe there are other methods of treating illnesses than what the AMA says is so.
A judge made the decision Friday that Daniel must have chemotherapy. Keeping him from treatment was tantamount to medical neglect, said child protection officers.
I believe that every family has the right to raise their children without the government sticking their nose in where it doesn’t belong. But, I also believe if the government doesn’t step in on certain issues concerning children, a precedent will be set that could allow other child abuse cases to be ignored. When the life of a child is in danger, someone needs to step in.
The right to medical treatment should be left up the parents.Government has stepped in way to much where they shouldn’t and when they are really needed,when children are physically abused,they say they’re hands are tied and can’t do anything. A person should read the case about Abraham Cherrix who used alternative medicine to treat his cancer and is now cancer free.Chemotherapy is just another poison you are putting in your body that says it causes cancer.
A very belated response but I ran across your post catching up on local news and I was glad to see this and I agree. The family wasn’t praying over his medical condition they were trying an alternative method. To treat non traditional medical treatment as if it were prayer over a critically sick child is offensive, ludicrous and insults the intelligence of responsible, conscientious parents.
It is telling that the parents brought the child to chemo therapy, which would indicate that they wouldn’t risk his life but were willing to investigate other successful methods whose side effects were less harmful.
Currently, I visit our families “Witch Doctor” (he’s of course not really a Witch Doctor,he’s a chiropractor with advanced NAET training) more often than I ever see an M.D. By treating my mother-in-laws eczema as an allergic reaction instead of a skin condition, they did what is known as NAET treatments. NAET is an allergy elimination technique. It takes 20 minutes, its painless and it works. She’s been eczema free for nearly a decade. When allergies became an increasing issue for me I contacted him paid for the NAET allergy elimination treatments and went off all 3 allergy prescriptions. Dusting and vacuuming used to make me sick for days, now I preform those tasks without even thinking about it. After such positive experiences with home remedies and alternative medicine I would have bitterly resented the intervention of government… especially since the boy himself had participated in the decision making.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I think you represent a quiet but gathering public opinion.