13 Year Old Minnesota Cancer Patient Daniel Hauser and Mother Colleen Hauser Still Missing … Believed to be in Mexico

The case of missing Daniel Hauser has also turned into one of ethics. Is it right for parents to withhold medical treatment from their son because of religious beliefs. Is it right for a state to force medical treatment?

13 year old cancer patient Daniel Hauser and his mother Colleen Hauser continue to be missing as an arrest warrant was issued last Thursday for the mother who fled with her son to avoid chemotherapy treatments. The new warrant for the mother is for deprivation of parental rights. It is thought that the two are on their way to Mexico for alternative cancer treatment. It is widely held that Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a highly curable form of cancer when treated with chemo and radiation.

Colleen Hauser’s son, Daniel, has Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The two from Minnesota were seen in Southern California on Tuesday morning and authorities have said they could be in Mexico.

“Hopefully we’ll find Daniel, for Daniel’s sake,” Brown County Sheriff Rich Hoffmann said Thursday

Authorities believe the mother and son fled Monday after a court-ordered X-ray showed a tumor in Daniel’s chest was growing. Doctors have said the tumor will likely kill Daniel without conventional treatment, but Colleen Hauser favors healing methods of an American Indian religious group known as the Nemenhah Band.

Daniel Hauser

Although Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a highly curable, the parents of Daniel Hauser rejected chemotherapy after a single treatment, with the boy’s mother saying that putting toxic substances in the body violates the family’s religious convictions. However, Brown County District Judge John R. Rodenberg in an order to “apprehend and detain“ Daniel and Colleen Hauser as it was “His best interests require it.”

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.

Boy Refusing Chemo Ordered to Foster Care (and Other Updates)

To date, there are no new leads in the case of missing Daniel Hauser as both mother and son are still on the run.

UPDATE I: Interpol joins search for missing Minn. mom, son