"natural" healing methods? Excuse me??

What I want to know is how come this poor child is being forced to do something that he obviously does not want to do. As a USA citizen it is your right to refuse medical treatment. Having gone through Chemo I would not willingly want to do it again under no circumstances. Its was the worst expeirence of my entire life. I would also like to know when the courts had the right to become involved in a religious fight. It dont matter what the religion is this child has invoked his constitutional rights the right to choose his own religion and if that means refusing medical care due to his religious beliefs then who are the courts to force him to do something he feels is religiously wrong? I mean hasnt this poor family been through enough. That they have to fight for the right to refuse medical treatment as well.

I don't know what treatments that family was using, but I do know that herbal remedies have worked very well for diseases such as HIV (Magic Johnson) and hepatitis c (winona judd) and herbs are used in fertility to conceive with comparable results to more "traditional" medical systems.

This is one of those sad cases where there are good and valid arguments for both sides. In defence of Catholic teaching, I should point out that it is the parents' belief in the teachings of the Nemenhah band, which advocates traditional Amerindian practices, which is at issue, not their Roman Catholicism. On the one hand, the boy is a minor and there are laws which are designed to protect minors from abuse and neglect by their parents. The medical people are of the opinion that the "natural healing methods" are not adequate and therefore they have to conclude that the boy's medical treatment is being neglected. On the other hand, the boy himself is mistrustful of the chemotherapy that he is being offered. It appears that he has already had one course and it's reasonable to assume that he has experienced its effects and believes that another course may very well kill him. There is the added difficulty that he has a learning disability and may not be able to make a properly informed decision himself. The parents (and the boy) have a right to their beliefs in alternative medicine but the State is also responsible for the adequate protection of minors (and could be held to account if they did not perform their duties). The mother has very not likely taken the best course by going into hiding - it will not help her case, I think, in upholding her right to reject conventional medicine.

I am not curious to know coz as it is I find total madcaps at every corner I turn, I could do with one less…I am far more curious to know where is psycho-case of mom is and how she is hiding this poor child…its always the children who bear the brunt of adult madness…WHY? if there is a God, I would really demand to know WHY do the children get abused, beaten, denied, scarred…just because they are so helplessly dependent on us? Just because they don’t question us? Just because they seek solace in the belief that mom/dad knows what’s the best for me? (sorry, I feel like crying right now…I do so much hope they find this child soon enough)