Trials for Parents Who Chose Faith Over Medicine

[groovedaddy]

WESTON, Wis. — Kara Neumann, 11, had grown so weak that she could not walk or speak. Her parents, who believe that God alone has the ability to heal the sick, prayed for her recovery but did not take her to a doctor.

After an aunt from California called the sheriff’s department here, frantically pleading that the sick child be rescued, an ambulance arrived at the Neumann’s rural home on the outskirts of Wausau and rushed Kara to the hospital. She was pronounced dead on arrival.

The county coroner ruled that she had died from diabetic ketoacidosis resulting from undiagnosed and untreated juvenile diabetes. The condition occurs when the body fails to produce insulin, which leads to severe dehydration and impairment of muscle, lung and heart function.

“Basically everything stops,” said Dr. Louis Philipson, who directs the diabetes center at the University of Chicago Medical Center, explaining what occurs in patients who do not know or “are in denial that they have diabetes.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/21faith.html?_r=1&...

[Book Lover]

1. I know these are grieving people, but I hope they are given crushing prison terms

How can you look at your dying baby and think your mere words are going to cure them? I hope these people's hearts and souls are crushed when in prison and when they get out of prison, they are run out of town as the *real* baby-killers they are.

[FiveGoodMen]

6. Too bad the fuckers that taught them to believe such nonsense can't be charged as well!

[Crunchy Frog]

2. What do these people do when their toilets stop working?

Do they call the plumber, or do they pray for God to fix it? Do they care more about their toilets than they do about their children?

I hope they get a long prison sentence.

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. Murder by neglect

Münchausen syndrome by proxy is a recognized mental disorder; legally, however, deliberate harm or neglect of a child is still a criminal offense.

Why isn't the deliberate harm or neglect of a child by way of religion treated with the same body of precedent?

[frebrd]

4. I hope they lock them up and throw away the key......

and I hope their remaining kids don't end up with some other religious nut in the family!

It always amazes me when children are taken away from unfit parents, then given to the people who raised the unfit parents.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. I'm an atheist because religious people are so cruel

So let's punish the ignorant religious as painfully as we can.

Yeah ... that sounds about right.



--p!

[Warpy]

7. Why are you slamming atheists?

Medically ignorant religious people killed their daughter through neglect.

Atheists had nothing to do with this.

I suggest you try not to hijack this particular thread which is a cautionary tale about the limits of prayer.

[ZombieHorde]

10. The OP made no mention of punishment for...

The OP made no mention of punishment for the Christians who neglected their child to death in the name of their God.

Why are you attacking the OP?

[redqueen]

13. "Ignorant" implies they don't know any better.

If one turns away from knowledge, is "ignorance" really the word for it?

While it's possible that they really didn't know anything at all about science, I seriously doubt that is the case.

[charlie]

14. They knew about science and medicine

Among the items seized at their house were 8 Blue Cross HMO cards.

[ezgoingrl]

8. When I was in the third grade,

a kid's mom in my class died giving birth, both babies died too. So after mom and babies die in the bathtub, dad removes them to the backyard where he buries them because they don't believe in embalming either. When I was in the 6th grade, several members of the same family were ran over by a car, resulting in injuries, thankfully none serious that I can remember but I remember lots of cuts and bruises. Finally, when I was a junior in high school, a girl one year older than me (in the same family) died from peritonitis after her appendix burst. This girl, who was my friend, begged for someone to help her before the appendicitis because she was having other health issues, but NO ONE in the community including my parents could do anything. When she died, thankfully her family did not try to bury her in their yard, but her funeral was held several days later. I remember the church was in the middle of nowhere, it was stark and cold and barren. Inside,my fried lay in a cheap casket and without the benefit of being embalmed pools of blood were visible in her face and exposed skin. I remember that she looked tortured and tired. The pews were wooden, old and uncomfortable. The service was colder than the surroundings, if you can believe that. We teenagers were told that if we didn't listen to our parents, if we strayed as she had then a similar fate or even a worse one was in our future. The faces of her brothers and sisters were distraught, sad and confused. I wanted nothing more than to run out of the building.

I have never felt such feelings of anger and confusion. A few months later, my friend's father did go to jail for his failure to help my friend. He spent only a few weeks in a county facility, it wasn't enough and I felt betrayed even further by the system.

I think it is pathetic that kids are still dying like this. There is no excuse. Parents need to know that they are responsible for the well-being of their children until their children are old enough to decide for themselves if they will chose faith or science and when parents fail as far as I'm concerned no penalty is too severe.

[groovedaddy]

9. That's just downright torture! The ONLY ONE you can make such decisions for

is your self.

[ZombieHorde]

11. Scary story. Scary people.

What religion were they? Christian Science?

Was most of the town this religion, or just a small pocket?

We teenagers were told that if we didn't listen to our parents, if we strayed as she had then a similar fate or even a worse one was in our future.

Insane.

Parents need to know that they are responsible for the well-being of their children until their children are old enough to decide for themselves if they will chose faith or science and when parents fail as far as I'm concerned no penalty is too severe.

I have no doubts these people are a threat to society, but I wonder if a mental institution would be a better match than a prison.

[struggle4progress]

12. More important than throwing people in jail is: getting kids help when they need it

Throwing the parents in jail may be appropriate but: (1) it doesn't bring the dead kids back, and (2) it's really unlikely to change the parents' attitudes, since they'll probably just regard themselves as religious martyrs

Adults, of course, are generally entitled to make decisions for their own medical care or non-care. And parents are, as a general rule, going to do their best to make medical decisions for their kids

But there are social forces that might tend to create a pray rather than treat attitude in some care-givers, notably, the high cost of medical care

We really do need a national health care system that makes quality care available to everyone. And we need to fund child social services, which are overworked and underfunded almost everywhere

[anonymous171]

15. I don't think that this is covered by the free exercise clause. nt