How Many Times Does It Have To Fail?
CNN.com/crime is reporting that a 16 year old Oregon boy, whose parents raised him in a faith-healing only church called the Followers of Christ, has died of a urinary tract blockage. The blockage caused a buildup of urea in his bloodstream, which poisoned his organs and caused heart failure.
He probably had a congenital condition that constricted his urinary tract where the bladder empties into the urethra, and the condition of his organs indicates that he had multiple blockages during his life, said Dr. Clifford Nelson, deputy state medical examiner for Clackamas County.In March, the boy's 15 month old cousin died of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection, after her parents refused to do anything but pray for her recovery. The two children are the latest in a series of deaths among younger church members, which in 1999 prompted the state of Oregon to remove protections based on religion for parents who treat - or rather, FAIL to treat - their children with prayer rather than actual useful medicine.
"You just build up so much urea in your bloodstream that it begins to poison your organs, and the heart is particularly susceptible," Nelson said.
Nelson said a catheter would have saved the boy's life. If the condition had been dealt with earlier, a urologist could easily have removed the blockage and avoided the kidney damage that came with the repeated illnesses, Nelson said.
Unlike the parents of the little girl, who were charged with manslaughter and criminal mistreatment, the parents of the latest victim have another out. Oregon law allows minors over the age of 14 to refuse medical treatment. If it turns out that the boy was offered treatment and refused it, his parents are off the hook.
Two things spring to mind. First, these people are serial child abusers. Points to Oregon for having the stomach to prosecute them. We can only hope that their planned religious freedom defense doesn't stand up in court. A competent adult should have the right to refuse medical treatment for any reason, but withholding medical help from a sick toddler is crazy and criminal, and no amount of faith should shield willfully neglectful parents from prosecution.
Freedom of religion, like every freedom, has to have practical limits. Freedom of speech doesn't protect the proverbial guy shouting "fire" during the premiere of the latest summer blockbuster. Freedom to practice one's religion without government interference shouldn't protect parents who routinely let helpless children die from easily treatable diseases. We as a society need to come to some kind of consensus that exempting churches from property taxes is acceptable, but subjecting children to potentially fatal neglect isn't.
Second, and more personal, are some variations on the question I asked above. How many times does the power of prayer have to fail before these parents will wake up and stop letting their children die? I don't expect them to stop believing in their god, but is a healthy dose of "those who help themselves" to much to ask? How deeply indoctrinated do you have to be to believe that your all-powerful, benevolent deity has a plan that includes your son or daughter dying for want of a bottle of penicillin? Is there any way to shake these people awake before another child dies? If anybody has answers to any of these, I'd love to hear them.
4 comments:
I don't have any answers, I'm afraid, but I think it's more than willful ignorance on the part of these people - it's also hubris. They're essentially challenging their God to prove his (or her, ahem) existence. Doesn't seem all that Christian to me.
That's an interesting motivation that hadn't occurred to me. I wonder, has there been any evidence that they've called their deity out when prayer fails?
By all appearances, the community takes the "meekly obeying" tack, chalks it all up to a divine plan, and moves on. I feel like there would be more of a "what kind of lame god can't even unblock a urethra?" sort of outcry if they were challenging their god to a game of find the deity. My guess is they're blaming themselves for not praying hard enough, or maybe blaming each other for not being strong enough in the faithy bits.
Then again, I suppose unconscious hubris is still hubris. Thanks for giving me something to mull over. Also, curse you for making me think critically this early on a Monday.
I heard about a family of similarly-minded religious believers. There were twins born into the family, both suffering Spina Bifida. One child had to die before the wife stood up to the husband and said "the other one gets help even if I have to leave you". The second twin got medical help; the couple got a divorce.
I'm not sure there is an answer. Unless we start mandating health care and passing laws to uphold those mandates, we can look to legal consequences involving jail time. Even so, with capital punishment being such a hot topic, it doesn't look like something that the masses are going to get to be much a part of.
Course, regulating health care won't work with the system we have now. So the easiest method is tough punishment. But then the courts have to infringe on civil rights and religious freedom.
Seems unfortunate that we can't sink millions of dollars into researching genetic markers for common sense, and engineer a generation of people that can rationally think for themselves.
change "civil rights" to "individual rights" and change "the courts have to..." to "the courts will be perceived as infringing...." and that's closer to exactly what I meant.
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