Minnesota Court Orders Chemotherapy for Danny Hauser Over Parents' Religious Objections
In May 2009, a Brown County, Minnesota juvenile court found 13-year-old Daniel Hauser medically neglected after his parents, citing their Nemenhah Band religious beliefs, refused chemotherapy for his Hodgkin's lymphoma. The court ordered chemotherapy; his mother Colleen Hauser briefly fled the state with him before returning under a warrant.
After Daniel Hauser was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in January 2009, his parents Colleen and Anthony Hauser refused a second round of chemotherapy, publicly citing their adherence to the Nemenhah Band, a group espousing 'natural healing' as a religious practice. Brown County child-protection authorities petitioned the juvenile court; Judge John Rodenberg ruled on May 15, 2009 that Danny was a 'child in need of protection or services' and ordered chemotherapy over the family's religious objections. Colleen Hauser fled with Danny to California; a warrant was issued and she returned within a week. Danny completed treatment and went into remission. The case became a widely cited example of religious-expression conflicts within child-welfare and family-court proceedings, and was analyzed in medical-ethics and law-review literature.