"Faith healing" 274 children later...

[R13]

Everyone of the parents should be in jail, ridiculous. Praying is fine, but it obviously doesn't work without some medicine involved too.



NASHVILLE, Tennessee - Most U.S. states have child abuse laws allowing some religious exemptions for parents who shun medicine for their sick children, but a few recent cases highlight thorny legal issues for parents following less-recognized faiths.

Existing laws have gradually accounted for more well-known and established faiths, such as Pentecostalism, Christian Science and Jehovah's Witnesses.

But recent cases in the news have judges and child care advocates dealing with parents who claim adherence to lesser-known faiths, such as the Minnesota family following an Internet-based group's American Indian beliefs, and an independent church in the western state of Oregon that has been investigated in the past for the deaths of members' sick children.

Legal and religious scholars say it's becoming more difficult for courts to decide when to honor the religious beliefs of parents and when to order conventional medical treatment for extremely sick children.

The manslaughter trial of an Oregon couple who claim they were following their religious beliefs in the 2008 pneumonia death of their 1-year-old daughter began Monday. Carl and Raylene Worthington are members of Followers of Christ Church, which has been investigated for past child deaths.

In Tennessee, Jacqueline Crank and her minister Ariel Sherman face child neglect charges in the death of her 15-year-old daughter Jessica, who died in 2002 with a basketball-sized tumor on her shoulder. Prosecutors say based on Sherman's advice, the girl's mother relied on prayer instead of medicine.

Sherman has been accused of being a cult leader whose Universal Life Church is not a legitimate religion. He has denied such charges and says the church is Christian-based and embraces the Bible.

Believers in faith healing point to a Biblical verse in the Epistle of James, which describes how church elders should be called in to pray over the sick. There's no mention of doctors, and literalists interpret it to mean medical treatment should be eschewed over prayer.

Exemption law 'too vague'
Gregory P. Isaacs, an attorney for Crank, who is out on bond, argues that Tennessee's religious exemption law is untested and too vague.

"It really has a tremendous amount of problems," Isaacs said. "What is an organized religion and what is an ordained minister? What illnesses can you attempt to heal by faith? Those are the two pitfalls in the statute. That's not what's really clear."

Jim Dwyer, a William and Mary Law School professor who has written articles about and participated in litigation on the topic, said it is often more complicated for courts to discern cases with unaffiliated religions because judges and juries aren't as familiar with them and are skeptical of their legitimacy.


Sincerity and skepticism
"The Supreme Court has adopted a very broad definition of religion," Dwyer said. "But ... you have to show sincere religious beliefs. Some judges might be skeptical of sincerity if it's something they've never heard of, if the person says, 'I don't belong to a certain church. I just have some beliefs that I saw on the Internet,' or 'In our own home, we've developed this set of beliefs.'"

Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, a pediatrician and co-director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University, says when treatment for an illness is very toxic and the prognosis is dire, courts tend to rule parents don't have to pursue medical treatment. If that's not the case, courts are likely to order the treatment.

"Until medicine became effective, there was no push to say we absolutely have to do medical treatment. There wasn't this notion of deference (to religion) until medicine began to work and to become institutionally powerful."

Besides the states that have religious exemption laws, five states — Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska and North Carolina — have repealed such laws.

Internet-based religious groups
Many of the exemption laws were enacted in the 1970s. Rita Swan, director of the Sioux City, Iowa-based advocacy group Children's Healthcare is a Legal Duty, which lobbies states to repeal such laws, said that since 1975, there have been at least 274 known cases of U.S. children who have died after medical care was withheld on religious grounds.

She says the majority of such cases are still associated with established denominations like Pentecostalism, though "the Internet has opened up some more possibilities than it did before" and there have been some cases involving unaffiliated denominations.

At least two recent high-profile cases involve parents whose beliefs were drawn from Internet-based religious groups.

Authorities in Minnesota convinced a judge to force 13-year-old Daniel Hauser into chemotherapy, prompting his mother Colleen to skip a court hearing and — with her son in tow — go on the run for nearly a week in May.

They headed to Southern California, where they considered a trip into Mexico for alternative cancer treatments, before eventually returning to the Hausers' home. The boy has since received chemotherapy treatments, which appear to be working.

The family prefers natural healing practices suggested by an Internet-based group called the Nemenhah Band, which says it follows American Indian beliefs.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31664340/ns/us_news-faith/

[R13]

Another looney. Lock them up and throw away the key, "test your faith" my ass. Gets more and more ridiculous every time I hear this stuff. More proof we'd be so much better off without religion in this world.



WAUSAU, Wisc. - The mother of an 11-year-old girl who died of undiagnosed diabetes as the family prayed for her to get better testified Tuesday that she believes sickness is caused by sin and can be cured by God.

Leilani Neumann told the jury in her husband's trial that she thought her daughter's March 2008 illness was a test of her religious faith and she didn't take the girl to a doctor because that would have been "complete disobedience to what we believe."

Dale Neumann, 47, is charged with second-degree reckless homicide in the 2008 death of his daughter Madeline Neumann, called Kara by her parents. His wife was convicted of the same charge this spring and faces up to 25 years in prison when sentenced Oct. 6.


Prosecutors contend Dale Neumann recklessly killed the youngest of his four children by ignoring her deteriorating health. They claim Neumann had a legal duty to take her to a doctor.

Leilani Neumann testified for nearly five hours Tuesday, describing the events leading up to her daughter's March 23, 2008, death on a mattress on the floor of the family's rural Weston home as people surrounded her and prayed. Someone called for help when she stopped breathing.

The mother said that she and her husband believed their daughter's deteriorating condition may have been the result of a falling out with another couple, and called them once the girl was unconscious and persuaded them to come pray for the girl.

Illness viewed as 'something spiritual'
The family does not belong to an organized religion, and Leilani Neumann said they have nothing against doctors. But, she said, she believes in spiritual healing and viewed Madeline's March 2008 illness as "something spiritual."

Leilani Neumann also said that she did not realize her daughter was seriously ill until the day before her death, when the girl was weak and pale and had trouble speaking.

"I asked her if she loved Jesus," the mother testified. "She might have said yes. I know for sure she was acknowledging it. What sounds came out, I don't remember. She was making noises. ... My focus definitely was to pray."


She said she never once believed the girl would die.

"We thought even the lifelessness was something that she would come out of," the mother said. "Everything for us is about faith. It is about trusting in God. We either believe in God's word or we don't."

A pediatric expert on diabetes told the jury Monday that even right before her death, doctors might have been able to save the girl's life had she been brought to a hospital.

Mom of dead girl: Sickness was test of faith - Crime & courts- msnbc.com

[LCAS_712]

I bet most if not all of these folks got to see doctors when they where kids by their normal parents. I would figure that they will try to plea insanity with this one too.

[cosmo99]

Another looney. Lock them up and throw away the key, "test your faith" my ass. Gets more and more ridiculous every time I hear this stuff. More proof we'd be so much better off without religion in this world.

Just so you know, not all religions are like this, so you can't lump them all together and think you have proof.

[TheBeast]

More proof we'd be so much better off without left wing elitists in this world.

Fixed it for ya.

[LCAS_712]

I would think that the left wing dirt bags would like this kind of stuff since they are all down for population controll.

[LCAS_712]

I would think that the left wing would like this kind of stuff since they are all down for population control.

[R13]

Just so you know, not all religions are like this, so you can't lump them all together and think you have proof.

And I didn't specify any religion. I don't care for any of them.

Any parent that does this or denies their child care, are just as bad as someone who abuses/kills their children. I don't care if they want to believe in anything, but when it comes to their child...they have no choice, it's the parents responsibility. If your child is bleeding to death, you take them to the hospital. Pray later, pray on the way to the hospital, don't pray...I don't care, you seek care for them. This is sickening, brainwashed ****. Already know how you feel about it beast, more "gov forcing" rhetoric.

[cosmo99]

I am a parent and if my son was to get sick of course I would take him to the doctor and do whatever it was that I needed to do to make him better. Just because I believe in God and praying does not mean that I don't believe in Doctors and medicine. Just like most singers say that they were blessed by God with their voices, I believe that most doctors are blessed with the knowledge and ability to help the sick. What you said was " More proof we'd be so much better off without religion in this world." That to me is lumping all of us that believe in God and do the right things into a pot with all those that are extremists or even all those that are just plain crazy like the ones in your posts. When my son gets sick, I pray but I also take him to the doctor.

[retiredteach]

Good reply, COSMO99. I agree.