Op-Ed: Religious extremism kills in more ways than one

When there is talk about religious extremism, the suicide bomber comes to mind. With the possible exception of a few Tamil freedom fighters in Sri Lanka, all of them are directly related to religious beliefs. Religion also kills in other ways, however.

Religion kills in more ways than one, however, and one of the saddest is the case of children refusing medical treatment because of the religion of their parents. One such case is that of 13-year old Daniel Hauser. He has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. According to doctors, an article in the Star Tribune says, Hodgkin's lymphoma is one of the most curable types of cancer. In spite of that, Daniel and his parents have chosen to ignore the advice of his cancer specialists and are using natural therapies, such as herbs and vitamins. The Brown County attorney, James Olson filed a petition against Colleen and Anthony Hauser, Daniel's parents, accusing them of child neglect and endangerment. He has asked a New Ulm judge to order Daniel to undergo treatment. Cases where children die because of the religious beliefs of their parents are not unheard of. "When Parents Call God Instead of the Doctor," an article in Time, quotes Rita Swan, a former Christian Scientist and executive director of the non-profit organisation Children's Health Care Is A Legal Duty, estimates that 300 children have died of "religion-based medical neglect" in the United States, since the 1980s. The same article also quotes Dr. Sara Sinal as saying that nobody really knows how many children's health problems have become worse as a result of the religious beliefs of their parents, because the system only kicks in when people become aware that a sick child is not getting care. Daniel Hauser's case stands out here, because while religion is the reason he refuses treatment, alternology is also involved. He has filed an affidavit claiming that he is a medicine man and church elder in the Nemenhah, an American Indian religious organisation. "I am opposed to chemotherapy because it is self-destructive and poisonous," he told the court. "I want to live a virtuous life, in the eyes of my creator, not just a long life." He also filed a "spiritual path declaration" that said: "I am a medicine man. Some times we teach, and some times we perform. Now, I am doing both. I will lead by example." As a consequence, the case is not only followed by people who are concerned about the dangers parents expose their children to because of their religious beliefs, but it is also being followed by alternologists of different stripes. The attorney who represents Daniel's parents says that the case has touched a nerve because the state wants to impose a treatment that neither the boy nor his family believe in. The county attorney has a different view. He says that he is trying to protect a child from a decision that could kill him. "If he were 18 years old and made the decision that his parents are making for him, we would not be in court," Olson said. "Since the boy just turned 13 in March, I felt the judge needs to take a look at this and make a decision." The Internet is an information revolution that has made information available that was hard to impossible to even learn the existence of until recently, but it also contains a lot of disinformation. The case of Jenny McCarthy, the starlet who encourages people to put their children in danger by not vaccinating them, is well-known, and she claims to have found her information on the Internet. In Daniel's case, the Internet plays a role as well. When his mother was asked where she got her information regarding the natural remedies such as herbs and vitamins the family want to use instead of conventional treatments, she said "on the Internet," according to the Star Tribune. During the opening part of the trial, Daniel's first oncologist, Dr. Bruce Bostrom of Children's Hospitals and Clinics in Minneapolis, testified that his chances of survival would drop to 5 percent without treatment instead of the 95 percent he has with treatment. Medical experts testified that X-rays showed that Daniel's tumour had grown between early April and late April. They called this finding alarming and said that the cancer could become even more difficult to treat the longer they wait. Daniel Hauser's mother said that her family members are "traditional Catholics" but that she has long believed in natural medicine and that this has prompted her family to join the Nemenhah group. She also said that she did not believe what Dr. Bostrom said, and that she does not believe that the tumour is growing but that the X-rays may be showing scar tissue. Philip Elbert, the lawyer appointed by the court to represent Daniel, pressed Dr. Valmarie Rodriguez, a Mayo Clinic oncologist, about how Daniel might be forced into treatment. Rodriguez said that she had never faced such a situation and that she doubted it would come that far. When Elbert asked her if she would restrain or sedate Daniel, she said that she would work with psychologists in order to deliver the care "in a compassionate way, not as a punishment", and she added that he was going to die if he didn't get treatment. Elbert asked if it would be ethical to sedate a 13-year-old who refused chemotherapy. "Good question," she sighed. "I don't know." Dr. Bostrom said that he believes that Daniel does not fully understand his condition. "I think that he understands that he was sick,'' Bostrom testified. "He doesn't understand that the Hodgkin's is what's making him sick, and he was led to believe that the chemotherapy was making him sick, when the exact opposite was true.'' After Friday's court session, Dan Zwakman, a member of the Nemenhah religious group the Hauser family belongs to, said that this is a case about religious freedom and that the group's motto is "our religion is our medicine."