Parental dilemmas, those tough choices all grown-ups must make during that treacherous trek through child-rearing, are as common as scraped knees and tear-stained faces. Guiding a kid into adulthood is not for the faint-hearted.

Some choices, however, prove more difficult than others. They can pit father against mother, progress against tradition, belief against science. Occasionally, too, they involve life and death issues.

The case of 13-year-old Daniel Hauser is the kind of story you expect to read in a Jodi Picoult novel or watch on a Lifetime Channel feature, prompting viewers to shake their heads and mutter, ``That happens only in movies.''

But Daniel is not a fictional character, his story is not a script, and the choice he and his parents have made test our most basic understanding of religion, medicine and parents' rights. As of this writing, a judge in Minnesota is wading through closed-door testimony in a courtroom that collected a motley crew of natural-health advocates, a spokesman of an obscure religious group, pediatric oncologists and a mother who, by all accounts, wants her son to live but sometimes comes across as incredibly ignorant.

Daniel was diagnosed in January with Hodgkin's lymphoma. He and his parents, Colleen and Anthony Hauser, who live on a farm in Sleepy Eye, Minn., don't want him to resume chemotherapy for his cancer. The boy considers himself a Native American medicine man, and the family believes conventional treatments go against the family's religious beliefs.

The family prefers natural remedies, including herbs and vitamins. Some of these techniques they've learned from the Internet. What's more, Colleen testified that she had signed the consent form for his only chemotherapy treatment in February because she felt pressured, but insisted she never agreed to the six full treatments the doctors recommended.

Though doctors have presented X-rays that show the mass in her son's chest has grown since he stopped treatment, Colleen dismisses this as scar tissue and believes the cancer will not metastasize. She warned the judge that she and her son would refuse to follow the court order if he were required to resume chemotherapy.

Daniel's oncologist at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, on the other hand, testified that Daniel has a 95 percent chance of survival if he receives chemotherapy -- without it, that plunges to 5 percent. Other medical opinions have concurred.

But the Hausers remain adamant that the survival rate with their traditional medicine is, as Colleen said in court, ''100 percent.'' This contrarian steadfastness in the face of fact begs some questions: Can parents refuse life-saving treatment for their child? Is a 13-year-old mature enough to refuse medical help because of religious beliefs? How do you deliver treatment to a teenager who doesn't want it?

As a mother who has thankfully never been in this situation, I can still empathize with parents trying to do the best by their values. But I'm bewildered -- and appalled -- by those who won't do everything to save their child, particularly if this involves proven and widely accepted medical practices.

Natural therapies can work wonders, but in many cases, such as this one, they are best used to complement evidence-based science. To hide behind the mantle of religious belief, to insist that a 13-year-old is developed enough to comprehend his options, smacks of willful ignorance and cult-like brainwashing.

As the biblical King Solomon knew, even well-intentioned parents can be blatantly wrong.

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