In "The Land of the Free", is Natural Medicine One of Your Freedoms?
By Dr. Mercola www.Mercola.com Source

As of May 20, police around the country were on the lookout for a Minnesota mother who fled with her cancer-stricken 13 year old son rather than consent to chemotherapy.

Colleen Hauser had told a judge that she wished to treat her son's cancer with natural healing methods advocated by an American Indian religious group known as the Nemenhah Band.

Daniel has Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer. But the teen and his parents rejected chemo after a single treatment, with the boy's mother saying that putting toxic substances in the body violates the family's religious convictions.

The Hauser family had been ordered to appear before a judge for a hearing to consider chemo. But mother and son failed to show, and a warrant was issued for the mother's arrest.

Sources:
Yahoo News May 20, 2009
American Association for Health Freedom
ABC News May 25, 2009

Dr. Mercola's Comments:
As many of you probably heard, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Colleen Hauser after she and her 13-year old son Daniel left Minnesota on May 19, to avoid chemotherapy treatment.


Daniel has Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer typically treated with chemo and radiation.

Their refusal to cooperate with the standard treatment for his condition led to a medical neglect petition, and a Brown County District Court Judge took custody away from his parents.


It’s hard to believe, but this case actually turned into an international manhunt with Interpol being notified, and U.S. Marshals being deployed to Mexico in search of this mother and her child, whose only crime was to say “No thank you” to the conventional medical treatment prescribed by Daniel’s doctor!

Whose Body is it Anyway?

According to the Associated Press, there have been at least five instances in the U.S. in recent years in which parents fled with a sick child to avoid some form of medical treatment.

And, as I reported last year, we’re seeing courts siding with well intentioned but seriously misinformed government “officials” with increasing frequency. Many parents are increasingly cut out of the decision-making process about what’s in their child’s best interest with regards to their health.

Instances like these should be a wakeup call for parents everywhere. There’s something seriously wrong going on here.

Said Gretchen DuBeau, Executive Director of the American Association for Health Freedom:

“I am shocked at the court’s ruling. For the court to take custody, disregard the parents’ right to parent, and dismiss the child’s own wishes is a travesty. Our Constitution affords certain rights, and the court has completely trampled on them. It is still unclear as to what exactly ‘the compelling state interest’ is that the court used to justify this ruling.”

Most states have laws that allow parents to refuse treatment on religious grounds. Minnesota, however, removed this right two decades ago with the help of Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Caplan has stated that “religious exceptions are bad public policy because effective medical treatment for a child shouldn't be sacrificed for a parent's beliefs.”

It’s shocking but true that, increasingly, you .are being told to sacrifice your beliefs as to what’s in the best interest of your child, and simply go along with a program that is designed to uphold the status quo of conventional medicine rather than promote true health.

Chemotherapy is NOT as Effective as Promised by Conventional Medicine

The central challenge in this case is your freedom to choose the health care you want, for whatever problem you have. However, it might be wise to review the specific health challenge here.

Lymphoma is cancer of your white blood cells, and half the people who get it die within 5 years. There are two main kinds of lymphoma: Hodgkin's disease, and the more common non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), which accounts for about 88 percent of all lymphoma.

No one knows exactly what causes this type of cancer, but we know that all cancers are caused by multiple gene mutations and/or damage to the parts of your immune system that normally destroy cancer cells.


According to Colleen Hauser, she opted to treat her son’s cancer with herbal supplements, vitamins, ionized water and other natural alternatives, because she believes chemotherapy to be highly toxic and dangerous. Daniel had suffered severe side effects after his first round of chemo.


This is clearly a rational and objective response to the dangerous and toxic solution that was offered to him.Chemotherapy is by its very nature extremely toxic, and may end up killing you prematurely or cause other cancers down the line as it practically destroys your immune system.


The biggest drawback to chemotherapy is the fact that it destroys healthy cells throughout your body right along with cancer cells. A typical, and potentially deadly, side effect of chemo is the destruction of the rapidly multiplying and dividing cells found in your:


• Bone marrow, which produces blood
• Digestive system
• Reproductive system
• Hair follicles

Conventional Medicine’s Lopsided View of Safety

According to a more recent update on the case, after returning home on May 25, the judge returned custody to Daniel’s parents on the condition that they comply with the recommendations of Daniel’s doctor.

After undergoing the second round of chemo on May 28, a family spokesman stated:

"Danny has had a horrible day, he's felt terrible all day long. He's not happy. The doctor changed the number of chemotherapy drugs in the protocol submitted to the court.

Danny is not tolerating the drugs well and has been vomiting all day.

He is understandably angry and depressed about being forced to go through the ravages of chemotherapy again."

His treating physician, Dr. Richards, has recommended at least five cycles of chemotherapy followed by radiation, adding that “the goal will be to include alternative therapies in which the family is interested, as long as there is not data to suggest that a particular danger exists with any alternative medicine.”

That’s really a rather funny, if not insulting, comment, considering the vast amount of data detailing the severe dangers that exist with chemo and radiation... In fact, a full 75 percent of doctors say they’d refuse chemotherapy if they were struck with cancer due to its ineffectiveness and its devastating side effects!


Granted, Hodgkin’s lymphoma is one of only a handful of cancers where chemotherapy may be of some value. The 5 year survival rate for patients treated with chemotherapy is just under 36 percent, according to a 2004 study published in the journal Clinical Oncology.


Still, being FORCED to undergo an excruciating and potentially deadly treatment because it offers a one third chance of being successful is, to me, morally reprehensible.

The Best Known “Chemotherapy” Agent Ever Found

Every month, there’s new and exciting news emerging about the near-miraculous benefits of having optimized vitamin D levels, and cancer prevention is one area that has already seen a huge number of studies confirming its usefulness.

Calcitriol, the most potent steroid hormone in your body, is produced in large amounts in your tissues when you have sufficient amounts of vitamin D. However, most cancer patients are vitamin D deficient.

Calcitrol -- the activated form of vitamin D -- has been shown to protect against cancer by inducing cell differentiation and controlling cell proliferation.

People with a low vitamin D level are less able to make activated vitamin D in an amount sufficient to exert the controls over cell proliferation that are needed to reduce cancer.

Optimized vitamin D levels will work synergistically with virtually every other cancer treatment. There are over 830 peer reviewed scientific studies showing its effectiveness in the treatment of cancer!

Not only is this approach virtually without any side effects, but the treatment is practically free.

I believe it is nearly criminal malpractice to not optimize vitamin D levels when treating someone with cancer, in which case you’ll want to elevate your levels of vitamin D to about 80-90 ng/ml.

To determine your current levels, and to have them monitored throughout your treatment, I strongly recommend you get your blood test done by LabCorp, if you are in the United States.

If the notion that sun exposure actually prevents cancer is new to you, then I highly recommend you watch my one-hour vitamin D lecture to clear up any confusion.

Additionally there are large numbers of highly effective energetic therapies like Meridian Tapping Techniques, or quantum approaches like Matrix Energetics, which can provide powerful options.