Sacrificing Children on the Altar of Parents’ Fanatical Faith

[...having grown up in a Christian Science household I know a bit
about what is going on here. My parents were not so fervent that when
I was really sick they wouldn't ask a doctor for help...but I knew
other parents who tried to trust completely in prayer. Thankfully,
none of those kids ever got seriously ill. I think there should be a
"Children's Bill of Rights", in some cases the welfare of the children
should be taken out of the parents hands...]

?By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.?
Hebrews 11:17

This Easter Sunday, 11-year-old Kara Neumann of Weston, Wisconsin,
died of diabetic ketoacidosis, a curable condition. While Kara was
bedridden suffering waves of nausea and vomiting and excessive thirst
and could not talk, her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, knelt in
prayer and refused to seek medical treatment.

Kara?s aunt called 911from California and told the dispatcher that her
niece was severely ill and that, ?We?ve been trying to get [Leilani]
to take Kara to the hospital for a week, a few days now . . . but she
is very religious and is refusing.?

When Kara stopped breathing, her father?s faith weakened and he dialed
911. Following the ambulance to the hospital, Leilani called the
prayer elders of the Unleavened Bread Ministry, an online church that
shuns medical intervention, and asked them to pray that the Lord would
raise her daughter up. Kara was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Predictably, there was no resurrection in Weston, Wisconsin this
Easter Sunday.

Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin, who is investigating the death,
told reporters that the Neumanns are ?not crazy.? He went on to
explain, ?They believed up to the time she stopped breathing that she
was going to get better. They just thought it was a spiritual attack.
They believed that if they prayed enough she would get better . . .
they said it was the course of action they would take again.?

Kara?s three siblings are staying with relatives until the
investigation is completed, but Chief Vergin assured reporters, ?There
is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see.? Vergin is correct . .
.. sort of. Refusing life-saving medical care to their remaining
children as ?the course of action they would take again? is not child
abuse, it is premeditated negligent homicide.

Unfortunately, the death of a child at the praying hands of religious
parents is not uncommon and is sanctioned by state and federal
religious exemption laws. Under Wisconsin law, parents cannot be
accused of child abuse or negligent homicide if they fervently
believed prayer was the best treatment for a disease or
life-threatening condition.

In 1986, 7-year-old Amy Hermanson of Sarasota, Florida, died of
diabetes because her mother and father?s religious beliefs forbade
medical treatment. The parents were convicted of child abuse and
third-degree murder. Florida?s Supreme Court overturned the conviction
in 1992.

In1989, 11-year-old Ian Lundman of Independence, Minnesota, died of
diabetes because his mother and stepfather relied on prayer to cure
him. Ian?s death was ruled a homicide and his parents were indicted. A
district court dismissed the case because Minnesota?s religious
exemption rule recognized prayer as medical treatment. Minnesota?s
Appeals Court and Supreme Court upheld the ruling.

In 2003, federal legislation ?sanctioned? the killing of children by
religious parents in the ?Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.?
The act requires that states receiving federal grant dollars must
include ?failure to provide medical treatment? in their definition of
child neglect. However, to placate the powerful Christian Science
lobby and other fundamentalist groups, legislators included the
following caveat: ?Nothing in this Act shall be construed as
establishing a Federal requirement that a parent or legal guardian
provide a child any medical service or treatment against the religious
beliefs of the parent or legal guardian.?

Only by a twisted, fundamentalist logic?pandered to by politicians?in
the overly religious United States, which is one Supreme Court vote
away from overturning Roe v. Wade in order to protect the rights of an
undifferentiated bundle of cells in a woman?s womb, can thinking,
feeling, trusting, loving children be allowed to suffer and die
because of the fanatical religious beliefs of their parents . .
..whether the child holds those beliefs or not.

It is unfortunate that parents, who obviously love their children,
regard their faith in a god with a lousy track record for healing as
unassailable, neither by the love nor by the trust of their children.
Between 1975 and 1995, 172 children died in the United States because
their parents refused medical treatment on religious grounds. One
hundred and forty of those children died from conditions which medical
science had a 90 percent track record of curing.

The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect concluded, ?There are
more children actually being abused in the name of God than in the
name of Satan.? As Gerald Witt, mayor of Lake City, Florida, said
about local faith-based deaths, ?It may be necessary for some babies
to die to maintain our religious freedoms. It may be the price we have
to pay; everything has a price.?

But religious zealots need not pay the ultimate price of sacrificing
their children on the altar of faith. It says so in the first book of
their bible. ?Abraham built an altar . . . and laid the wood . . . and
bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar. And the angel of the
Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham . . . lay not
thine hand upon the lad . . . for now I know that thou fearest God . .
..? (Gen. 22:9-12).

Should parents decide to disregard both their god?s admonition against
sacrificing children to prove a fanatical faith and society?s laws
against homicide, they should be held accountable to a secular ?higher
power? in a court of law that does not accept the strength of a
person?s religious belief as evidence of their guilt or innocence.

Author?s note: The United States and Somalia are the only countries
that have not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child.

Robert Weitzel
--
http://trudogg.com/bbg/index.html
.

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