Parents pray as diabetic daughter dies untreated

[Spearmint Rhino]

Parents charged in death of diabetic daughter

Incredibly sad story, but absolutely brilliant that they're being prosecuted. Have there been any precedents of religious freaks being imprisoned for this sort of thing? (The article mentions another couple who have been charged with a similar crime.) If not, I sincerely hope this case sets one. Throw the fucking book at them and throw away the key. (If found guilty, etc etc.)

By the way, this was the real WTF? part for me...

Madeline Neumann died March 23 -- Easter Sunday -- at her family's rural Weston home. Her parents were told the body would be taken to Madison for an autopsy the next day.

"They responded, 'You won't need to do that. She will be alive by then,"' the medical examiner wrote in a report.

[Incandenza]

Parents pray as diabetic daughter dies untreated

The father told investigators he noticed his daughter was weak and slower for about two weeks but he attributed it to symptoms of the girl reaching puberty, the complaint said.

A day before Madeline died, according to the criminal complaint, the father wrote an e-mail with the headline, "Help our daughter needs emergency prayer!!!!."

OFFS.

edit: I think there have been prosecutions of Christian Scientist parents who refused medical care for their children. I haven't read it, but here's an Atlantic article on that.

[Guest]

Parents pray as diabetic daughter dies untreated

'The Lord's going to heal her,'

Well, he provided doctors and hospitals and ambulances and medical knowledge and drugs, it's not like he didn't try his best.

[Wyatt Earp]

Parents pray as diabetic daughter dies untreated

How does that work? Him providing that stuff? (I mean, I get the gag, it's just I've never really followed the rationale behind it.)

[Heliotrope]

Parents pray as diabetic daughter dies untreated

I remember that even back in the '80s there was a made-for-TV movie about a similar real-life couple and starring Rosanna Arquette and Judge Reinhold. I didn't watch it, though, so I can't tell you if they did go to jail. There does seem to be articles in the newspaper about this kind of situation every so often, but there doesn't seem to be any follow-up as to the outcome if it occurred somewhere else.

[Guest]

Parents pray as diabetic daughter dies untreated

This reminds me a bit of the case of the Jehovah's witness last year. No doubt OTF covered it at the time.

what always makes me cross about these is how bizarrely fundamentalist the adherence to specific interpretations of quite ambiguous texts is.

[Guest]

Parents pray as diabetic daughter dies untreated

Wyatt, I don't know really, just it made me think of this:

"There was a man called him Jim, who lived near a river. Jim was a very religious man.
One day, the river rose over the banks and flooded the town, and Jim was forced to climb onto his porch roof. While sitting there, a man in a boat comes along and tells Jim to get in the boat with him. Jim says "No, that's ok. God will take care of me."
So, the man in the boat drives off.
The water rises, so Jim climbs onto his roof.
At that time, another boat comes along and the person in that one tells Jim to get in.
Jim replies, "No, that's ok. God will take care of me." The person in the boat then leaves.

The water rises even more, and Jim climbs on his chimney. Then a helicopter comes and lowers a ladder. The woman in the helicopter tells Jim to climb up the ladder and get in.

Jim tells her "That's ok." The woman says "Are you sure?" Jim says, "Yeah, I'm sure God will take care of me.

Finally, the water rises too high and Jim drowns.

Jim gets up to Heaven and is face-to-face with God. Jim says to God "You told me you would take care of me! What happened?"

God replied "Well, I sent you two boats and a helicopter. What else did you want?"