GOP Lawmaker Defends Faith Healing Sect’s Right To Let Children Die by Niki2

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GOP Lawmaker Defends Faith Healing Sect’s Right To Let Children Die

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Monday, January 20, 2014 13:28
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Monday, January 20, 2014 1:28 PM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Back in 2009, the newborn son of Dale and Shannon Hickman died. He was born prematurely with no medical presence: he died within nine hours of his birth. The parents belonged to the Followers of Christ, a sect that relies on faith healing and prayer in lieu of medicine. Another couple who belonged to the Followers of Christ had just pleaded guilty to the death of their 7-month-old daughter when the Hickmans were arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter. The other couple, the Wylands, had been charged with first-degree criminal mistreatment. They were found guilty in 2011 and sentenced to 90 days in jail plus three years probation. ( http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2011/06/oregon_city_fa
ith_healing_couple_sentenced_to_90_days_in_jail_and_three_years_probation.html)

Both couples were tried under the 1999 law ( http://courts.oregon.gov/OJD/docs/osca/cpsd/courtimprovement/jcip/dept
sb.pdf) passed by the Oregon legislature after a series of over 20 child deaths among Followers of Christ members. The children all died of easily treatable illnesses, partly because of the parental laws that had granted immunity in these cases. The 1999 law stripped that immunity for the severest cases: second-degree manslaughter and first- and second-degree criminal mistreatment. Several other Followers of Christ parents were prosecuted under the new law.

Now it's happening in Idaho. Many members of the Followers of Christ live in and around the Boise area. They, too, have seen a spate of child deaths due to ignoring medicine in favor of faith. The children have ranged in age from 22 months to 16 years.

Quote:
According to an autopsy from June 2012, 15-year-old Arrian Jade Granden died after suffering from food poisoning. After three days of vomiting, her esophagus ruptured.

Preston John Bowers, who was 22 months old, died in March 2011 of pneumonia, according to his autopsy report. He had been suffering from a fever for days.

That same month, 14-year-old Rockwell Alexander Sevy died after a two-week illness. "As time went on, he began having more shortness of breath and the rattle in his chest got worse," wrote Canyon County Coroner Vicki Degeus-Morris, concluding pneumonia.

Pamela Jade Eells, 16, died in November 2011, again of pneumonia, according to the Payette County coroner. http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/01/16/2976756/idaho-rep-tackles-fai
th-healing.html#storylink=cpy

Rep. John Gannon (D-Boise), has had enough. He wants to pass a law similar to Oregon’s, requiring parents to seek medical care for their gravely ill children, even if their religion disagrees. Linda Martin, an Oregon woman who left the church in Idaho decades ago and has returned this week to champion the changes, agrees. "These children need a chance to grow up," Martin told The Associated Press Thursday. ( http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/01/16/2976756/idaho-rep-tackles-fai
th-healing.html#storylink=cpy)

As it stands right now, Idaho law says that causing felony injury to a child will get the perpetrator 10 years in prison...except, of course, unless they're religious:

Quote:
“The practice of a parent or guardian who chooses for his child treatment by prayer or spiritual means alone shall not for that reason alone be construed to have violated the duty of care to such a child.” Same.

All a negligent parent has to do is claim that they don’t believe in modern medicine and they’re off the hook. The new bill would add the following sentence to current law: “However, this exemption shall not apply whenever a child’s medical condition may cause death or permanent disability.”

You know what's coming. There's a Republican lawmaker, Representative Christy Perry, who has already begun pushing back. She says this is about "religious freedom and parental rights". Both of these have been curbed before, with only the welfare of the children in mind; somehow the world didn’t end. But Rep. Perry is all freaked out:

“This is about religious beliefs, the belief God is in charge of whether they live, and God is in charge of whether they die. This is about where they go for eternity” ( http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/01/16/2976756/idaho-rep-tackles-fai
th-healing.html)

That’s right. Rep. Perry thinks that religious beliefs and parental rights trump even a child’s right to LIVE. Listen, if you want to leave things in God’s hands for yourself, that’s one thing and go ahead, knock yourself out. But when it comes to children, especially to babies who cannot speak for themselves, it’s a whole ‘nother ball game. To let a child suffer and die because of your religious beliefs is, in my estimation, despicable.

Luckily, there's a DECENT Republican out there, Rep. Rich Wills, who is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. It is there that Gannon’s bill will first be introduced. Wills is open to considering the changes that this new bill would put into place. “I’m concerned any parent would put their religious beliefs ahead of child welfare,” Will said. “It just stuns me.”

The Coroner of Ada County (where many of the children died), Erwin Sonnenberg, told reporters that the children’s illness could have been easily treated. He recalled autopsies of numerous Followers' children. In some instances, routine intervention — antibiotics here, an appendectomy there — could have saved them, he said. Even he cannot understand why the Followers of Christ allow their children to die:

“I understand the faith side of it. But it seems like at least let your kids grow up, when it comes down to it, and decide for themselves.” ( http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/01/16/2976756/idaho-rep-tackles-fai
th-healing.html).

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