Parents who prayed as daughter died to face murder charges

Christian Science believers no doubt.

How can people be so self-important to think that they can pray to save a child that could be saved by humans.

I have no idea how this couple could have honestly believed that sitting there, watching their daughter's health decrease, thinking that God was going to cure her entirely. I'm not saying I do or don't believe in the power of God, but c'mon! These ignorant jerks deserve at least 25 years in prison for what they did to this innocent child.

Religion should only provide a belief system of how people want to lead their lives, it should promote harmony, love, respect for others etc etc and should not be a substituion for science.

Science has proven the development of man but not the existance of a 'higher power'.

Prayer may help as it creates hope which in turn creates positive thinking, which in turn lightens the loads of the suffering and aids recovery but it should not be used as an alternative to medicine.

The child was eleven and as such should have been protected by the authorities, as they would have been if they were being abused.

The refusal of medical treatment should be counted the same as abuse and as such the parents should be prosecuted accordingly.

my heart goes out to this family.

i believe the daughter's health started to diminish so quickly the parents simply couldn't act fast enough. i remember reading the original article and engaged in the thread here at current a while back when it was revealed that it wasn't because the parents refused medical service. it had more to do with never having proper insurance and a daughter who insisted she'd get better (with prayer), according to related articles.

y'all should really chill on the witch-hunt.

its also important to note the distinction between actively terminating a life (i.e., muder/euthenasia) and passively allowing nature to take its course. I'm not convinced the state has a strong case.

Texas polygamy cults. Prayer instead of medical care. Scientology.

Religion is not having the Best Week Ever.

Maybe we should go back philosophy? Sure philosophy doesn't enjoy the same tax exempt status as its supernatural counterpart does -- but in this particular case if the parents had relied on a philosophy instead of a belief in supernatural magic this might not have happened.

And if you strip away the supernatural elements -- I don't think polygamy (and the odd pseudo-prairie garb) would be quite as compelling a lifestyle choice (at least not to the women!)

Good. Hopefully not one more child has to die because of his or her parents' ignorance.

There's respecting your religion, but respecting the people around you, especially your children, is far more important. I think God answered the prayers of the billions of other neglected kids around the world instead of these neglectful parents' prayers.

Well said, Crob. Always so right on.

Emergency rooms are full of people who don’t have insurance, so this is a BS excuse. Hospitals MUST treat people with a life threatening condition.

They should lock’em up! The grandmother suggested they should take the girl to the hospital, BUT no. Arrogant superiority expressed in Christianity once again.

Nature’s course is having humans use intelligence (instilled or given, which ever you believe) to advance mankind.

If the faithful have EVER seen a doctor, they have validated that human intellect is necessary to advance life on earth. Otherwise, they should have just called out for God to heal them.

people who live without insurance don't think of going to the doctor right away. when they do, it's usually the last resort, especially for symptoms like drowsiness and weakness.

although it may be true that they were ignorant of their daughter's sickness and acted too slow in getting her treatment in those two days her body rapidly started breaking down, they don't deserve to be punished the way all you witch-hunters/mob lynchers want!

they lost their daughter, for christ's sake! (no pun intended). we could be using our energies on saving truly neglected and sick children caused by our own indirect actions rather than persecuting parents who just lost their child by natural causes.

i dunno. maybe you are all right and these people need to be punished and suffer more for their inaction. but, i just don't think that would fix anything. i'd rather make sure all children, from now on, have free healthcare and see a doctor at least once or twice a year to detect and deter this kind of stuff. isn't that a better idea?

Lock them up.

These people have gone through enough. Cut them a break. They've already lost their child. We don't know that running up a doctor's bill they couldn't afford to pay would have done them any more good than praying. Kids die more often under some medical professional's care than from failed or unaswered prayers.

Let these folks alone.

It is a very sad story, but I tend to agree with pressrecord, BooksBrown, and 96thdayofrage.

These people have been through enough.
It is easy to swing the noose above your head and foam at the mouth, particularly when we only know the bare minimum about the situation; however, I would certainly not call what the parents did "murder." Whatever the breakdown of the situation is, they did not intentionally kill their child.
They are not violent offenders, just misled about medical science.
That is not worth 25 years in prison, and I'm sure their daughter would NOT want that.

Leave them be.
If Nancy Grace would have a field day with it [blaming the parents], then you probably shouldn't.

Well, here's a couple that did exact same thing, sans the economic justifications, and thus deserves our outrage.

http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20001129nixon4....

Yay!

No, I don't think I can agree with letting the parents off the hook on this one. If they weren't religious, but instead, did it for some other weird reason, would we be so ready to turn a blind eye?

Bringing them to justice isn't about witch hunting. And yes, I do think 25 years is too harsh. But what we're advocating here is completely within the law and reasonable. If we let irresponsible parenting off the hook, what we're basically saying to society is that the right for a parent to hold on to a set of beliefs (no matter how crazy and dangerous it is to the child) trumps a child's life. This kind of thinking is what allows polygamy and child brides to happen.

To me, that's just inhumane. Children are human beings! They are not the property of adults, to be experimented on, whether the experiment is religious or not.

a precedent has to be established - these parents should accept the judgement god has allowed to pass to them - if they're true believers they'll get even closer to god in prison , what-with all the time they'll have to waste , free of the troubles of being parents . their daughter died - they were responsible ( they were her parents , right ? ) - god chose not to intervene , so god evidently wanted them to be prosecuted - they are an example of what god doesn't want in this world . god works in mysterious ways , who are we to judge the judgement of god ?

This is truly sad. It is obviously negligent to not help your child with such obvious signs that something is wrong. It is even more troublesome to believe that God is a magic wand while humans are powerless to change situations.

I definitely agree they should be punished in some way shape or form, and I also agree that a precedent should be established (after all, it is obviously ridiculous to let your kid die because you believe a giant cloud of Space Dust is going to save her), but 25 years is intensely overdoing it. I also just wouldn't classify this as a murder.

diabetic ketoacidosis is a slow and painfull death through starvation and toxins, flooding your system : it's symptoms that are impossible to ignore

as a diabetic I can assure you that this is murder

the medical definition given on the website is wrong

thanks for that, xwolp

best punishment would be to ban them from having or adopting kids ever again. a little totalitarian maybe, but prison wouldn't fix anything and they sure as hell shouldn't be left around kids EVER again. I'm just glad it wasn't someone else's kid (or is that too insensitive?).

I say spay and neuter them and put them on the adoption agencies black list.

I'm sorry but having a strong religion doesn't mean that you have to be a complete idiot when it comes to your life being at risk. We live in a world of modern technology that can allow people to live past the normal expectancy, the least you can do is take advantage of it.

Even in the Bible it says faith without works is dead. In this case, the faith is believing that their daughter would come back to health, but the works would be seeking medical attention, not just praying, and they didn't do that.

For those of you who aren't familiar:

A man is drowning in the ocean. He looks up at the heavens and asks God to save him. Soon a row boat comes along and asks if he needs help. The man says

“No, I trust that God will save me”

The row boat leaves. Next a yacht comes by. Same thing, the yachts caption asks the drowning man if he needs help.

“no, God will save me because he loves me!”

After the yacht leaves, one more ship comes by, it is a Navy boat. The Navy asks the drowning man if he needs help.

“no, I trust that God will get me out of this”

The Navy leaves. No more boats come by and the man drowns.

At heavens gate the drowning man asks God why he did not save him. God replied..

“Are you kidding me? Jesus man, I sent you three boats!”

I think this is absolutely ridiculous. I don't think anything can be done. They'll just have to live and suffer knowing that their daughter could have been saved. They're not going to feel any more remorse in prison than out living, and I hope they realize that this is all their fault- that they let their own child die by passively waiting around with their hands folded.

They lost their daughter and have to live with the knowledge that they were responsible for that. I assure you, that is punishment enough for them. Leave them alone.

If this isn’t murder what is it then? And I’m sorry insurance should not factor into this argument at all. If you love your child you’ll pay the price no matter how steep it can be. Trust me I grew up a Jehovah Witness and my father was an elder. When I needed a blood transfusion to save my life my dad sure as hell didn’t beat up the doctor and tell him he was wrong. Then again my dad is not an elder anymore and has separated from the church.

If we are to uphold the notion of a separation of church and state those guidelines should also apply to health. You can’t justify a parent’s negligence because of religion anymore than you can for lack of insurance. When you bring a life into this world you are its guardian. You should be able to take a bullet for that life if the moment presented itself, you certainly don’t watch it slowly deteriorate and die.

As for the punishment I’m sorry you don’t get a “get out of jail free” card because it was your own child that died. During his sentencing the man who robbed and stabbed me said he was horrified his addiction led him to such a disgusting assault on a sleeping individual. I’m sure he thinks of my sleeping form a lot while he sits in his jail cell. Well that’s part of his punishment and he’ll have thirty years to deal with it.

I have remorse for those parents and in some ways for Ben but those people have done something that cannot be ignored by our society. They deserve whatever time the judge/jury gives them and should be happy they didn’t commit their crime in a less hospitable country.

you cant force people to take medication. im not religious by far but i think if it was there belief let them be. i hate medicine, i dont go to the doctor, i dont even take vitamins.. no one can force me to. you have the right to refuse

so sad

When will people realize that there is no god. C'mon this is 2008 and we still have people leaving life and death decisions up to some imaginery deity? I bet if one of the parents broke their leg they would run straight to the emergency room to get treatment but their daughter has a manageable affliction and they just watch her die.

Even though their behaviour was dispicable I am conflicted about jail time, there was no real malice and I don't think they are a danger to society at large but in order to prevent them from having another child they might just need to be locked up.

Would it be morally repugnant to give them a vasectomy and a hysterectomy? Personally I would find this preferable to going to jail for 25 years.

this was about 20 miles from my house, i somewhat understand the family's position but in my opinion what they did was very wrong, and they had to of known what was coming unless they are so deep believing in their religion they where completely oblivious to common sense.

someone should pray for these people...[insert sarcastic chuckle]

As seemingly idiotic as these parents seem, it is still their right as Americans to be able to practice their religion. If their religion forbids them to use any form of modern medicine, they have the right to do that. Remember that no person is required to have their own disease treated. I understand that this is about an eleven year old girl and it is a tragic story but don't forget that she also believed the same things as her parents. She also thought that prayer would heal her diabetes, whether that is realistic or not.

i don't think that the parents knew their daughter had diabetes. from the article, it seemed like they just thought she was getting the common flu or something along those lines. it's unfortunate what happened, but i'm not sure how i feel about the parents spending up to 25 years in prison for their decision to not take their daughter to see a doctor. if they didn't know about the symptoms of type 1 diabetes and didn't think the problem was that severe, i just don't know how they could be to blame.

at the same time, they should really realize that praying isn't going to fix anything. moral of the story: take your kids to doctors if they feel sick.

I don't know...I think common sense applies to these kind of situations...your kid is sick! Get your kid help...HELLO!

I believe in God and the power of prayer too but I don't think God expects us to just sit around while kids die and do nothing when there are doctors and hospitals that could easily help her. God helps those who help themselves.

Just reading this story and looking at her picture is heart breaking. I have a younger sister that is at that age. I would have never been able to sit there and watch her suffer. Poor girl probably went through so much agony and fear knowing that her parents were going to let her die. Lock them up and throw away the key!

what fool believes that praying will help anything ????

Natural Selection.