Teen's Death Blamed on Faith Healing

[Evolved]

Here we go again!

Religious Freedom = Faith Healing = Child Neglect

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/19/faith.healer.deaths.ap/index.html

 

[Asmodean]

Oh, they should press charges. Against the parents for brainwashing their kid, against whatever spiritual healers they used for being a hoax and most of all against God for starting this whole mess.  

I'm all for giving minors the ability to refuse treatment, but not for so wrong reasons as fear of Hell and promise of Heaven.

[Will]

We absolutely need legal precedent for negligence charges being filed in the cases of faith healings. The more precedent, the less successful these cooks will be in claiming it's religious freedom.

Was 9/11 also an act of religious freedom?

[Asmodean]

We absolutely need legal precedent for negligence charges being filed in the cases of faith healings. The more precedent, the less successful these cooks will be in claiming it's religious freedom.

Indeed. If a Healer could be sued for patient neglect, for instance, maybe their numbers would diminish.

Was 9/11 also an act of religious freedom?

In which case, why is it being called an act of terrorism? Ah, I see! Terrorism = Religious Freedom. Honestly, every system that allows religion to be more than it is, or even to be exactly what it is (a tool for easily controlling huge masses of people and hiding your real motives behind), sucks.

[Evolved]

It's absolutely amazing how far religious freedom is allow to extend here.  We have had several situations where outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases have occurred in childcare settings due to the one child whose parents opted out of regular childhood immunizations for religious reasons.  I also just found out that religious daycare centers in our state are exempt from licensing requirements - therefore they do not have to undergo the regulatory inspections required of other daycare centers.

[afreethinker30]

We absolutely need legal precedent for negligence charges being filed in the cases of faith healings. The more precedent, the less successful these cooks will be in claiming it's religious freedom.

Was 9/11 also an act of religious freedom?

I'v done alot of reading on the subject of child death and faith healers/religious beliefs.Honestly some of the crap they believe in.There are even groups of these people who even go so far as to say reading glasses are a sin and brought fourth by the devil.So memebers will go all of their life without being able to see correctly.Alot of the deaths in the cases of children were treatable.Some sects believe that having a blood transfusion damns you to hell.Carol Balizet use to be a RN is now Fundie and teaching that children should only be born with just a midwife.Telling women that under no terms are they to get medical treatment (Zion Births).One woman listened and suffered for three weeks before she finally died.Last number I had seen between 1975 and 1995 172 known children have died.

[karadan]

We absolutely need legal precedent for negligence charges being filed in the cases of faith healings. The more precedent, the less successful these cooks will be in claiming it's religious freedom.

Was 9/11 also an act of religious freedom?

I'v done alot of reading on the subject of child death and faith healers/religious beliefs.Honestly some of the crap they believe in.There are even groups of these people who even go so far as to say reading glasses are a sin and brought fourth by the devil.So memebers will go all of their life without being able to see correctly.Alot of the deaths in the cases of children were treatable.Some sects believe that having a blood transfusion damns you to hell.Carol Balizet use to be a RN is now Fundie and teaching that children should only be born with just a midwife.Telling women that under no terms are they to get medical treatment (Zion Births).One woman listened and suffered for three weeks before she finally died.Last number I had seen between 1975 and 1995 172 known children have died.

You've got to be fucking kidding me!!! This is allowed to happen?? Where are social services? Where is the human rights organisations? I swear, if anyone was found to be neglected like that anywhere in Europe, the parents would be sectioned and the child taken into care. It beggars belief that that kind of lunacy lets children be murdered legally.

I was appalled when i found out a co-worker of mine admitted that she hadn't got her 2 kids the 3-in-1 vaccine just because the papers had spread a vile rumour that this vaccine could have a link with autism. Of course, that was nonsense but some people really believe what the papers say. Anyways, i told her she was a fool and that people like her would be the ones screaming for blood in 10 years time when whole swathes of the population came down with smallpox and other horrible diseases. We don't talk any more because i'm quite opinionated apparently. Her denial seems to be lost on her, though. Silly bint.

[OldGit]

Here's an absolutely true story. It really happened a few years ago to a doctor I know very well, an Obs & Gynae consultant. It's a long one, so I'll do bullet points.

Jehovah's Witness comes into hospital to give birth.
Baby born OK but mother has serious haemhorrage.
Husband (!) says no blood transfusion although warned she may well die.
She gets much worse.  Hospital go to court to override husband.  They win, but...
Too late. She dies.
Husband sues 'my' doctor for negligence.  Loses, of course.
Husband soon remarries, new wife pregnant, husband specifically requests 'my' doctor to take charge.
Doc tells him to get lost - luckily, the rules allow that.

Hows about that, folks?  

[Asmodean]

Yeah... OBGYN, ER and Oncology docs are probably the ones that suffer most at the hand of Jehova's witnesses.

What's wrong with transfusions anyways?! Blood is just some goo in which some red cells and white cells swim.

[OldGit]

They are bloody weird, that's why!

http://www.ajwrb.org/basics/abstain.shtml

Grrrr!

[Asmodean]

Bah!   You know what? If they wanna die from cancers, haemorrhages or high blood loss accidents, I sey let them. I just think it's wrong to do so in the name of God and not in the name of your own.

[weedoch]

I've worked in psychiatry as a nurse for a long time and have often pondered on the ramifications of forcing people to accept medical intervention. In mental health it's often cut and dried: danger to self or others = enforcable treatment. I don't think that people of sound mind should be compelled to have treatment whatever their misguided notions might be - it sets a dangerous precedent which would lead to erosion of personal choice. This opinion grays consideraby when kids are involved...I'd risk the wrath of an almighty to save my kids!

[afreethinker30]

I was very shocked myself when I read more into it.I have two children and if they needed anything I would do everything to give it to them.I don't see how a parent can say they love a child and let this happen.

[Asmodean]

I'd risk the wrath of an almighty to save my kids!

I suppose I would too, if I had any. Still, if my kids wanted to refuse treatment and fully understood the implications of such a decision, I would most likely support them. Un-willingly, but I'm almost sure I would.

[Jane]

I'd risk the wrath of an almighty to save my kids!

I suppose I would too, if I had any. Still, if my kids wanted to refuse treatment and fully understood the implications of such a decision, I would most likely support them. Un-willingly, but I'm almost sure I would.

The trouble comes, I think, when some parents see their children as extensions of themselves - "empty vessels" I think is the term. When this is the parent-child dynamic, the kid isn't viewed as having the capacity to come to a reasoned decision on their own. Instead, they are, as said above, empty vessels to be filled with your wisdom...any deviation from your teachings is seen as a failure to parent properly. So...your kid wanting medicine means you haven't trained him to have enough faith.