More irresponsible faith-healing parents in court for letting their child die

Anyone with a rational mind has figured out long ago that faith healing is pure bullshit and that those who support such insipid hokum are sure to be both delusional and religious (which one might argue are the same thing, of course). However, the thing about them being pro-nonsense also correlates to them being anti-reason and staunchly opposed to actual, science-based medicine. This is the attitude that turns faith healing into something far worse than a mere byproduct of religion, and into something that’s palpably and notoriously dangerous. Quite simply, faith healing doesn’t heal. It kills from a lack of proper medical care.

Worst of all, is that the majority of the innocent victims who suffer such horrible fates, are children. Religious parents all too often consider their kids to be more akin to their personal possessions rather than individual and separate beings, and therefore do impose upon them whatever nonsense they believe in, regardless of whether it actually works in reality or not. These kids need actual medical help, yet far too often never get it in time, and suffer the ultimate consequences – though not before having suffered through a horrific, slow and painful ordeal before the end.

Sadly, the irresponsible, foolish and terminally deluded parents of these kids never seem to be able to accept accountability for the fact that their bullshit led to their childrens’ death, and worst of all, the law is constantly an obstacle towards incriminating and prosecuting them as they should be, what with those countless bullshit “Religious freedom” clauses and exceptions. As if one’s liberty to choose and exercise their faith of choice ought to be prioritized over people’s lives and well-being, especially children’s.

Here’s just another one of those reports about how faith healing and anti-medicine thinking led to the demise of innocent children. As you can expect, the it doesn’t make this hokum, and the religious kooks who believe in it, look any better than they deserve.

Jeff and Marci Beagley are charged with criminally negligent homicide for failing to provide adequate medical care for their 16-year-old son, Neil, who died in June 2008 of an untreated urinary tract blockage.

The Beagleys are also the grandparents of Ava Worthington, whose 2008 death prompted last year’s high-profile trial of Ava’s parents, Raylene and Carl Brent Worthington. Raylene Worthington, who is the Beagleys’ daughter and Neil’s sister, was acquitted in that case. Her husband was convicted of criminal mistreatment.

The entire family belongs to Oregon City’s Followers of Christ Church, which shuns medical care in favor of prayer, anointing with oil and laying on of hands.

Oregon law once allowed parents to avoid homicide charges if they relied solely on spiritual treatment and their child died. The law changed in 1999, mainly due to the church’s long history of children dying from untreated medical conditions.

So, we got innocent kids dying as a result of lack of medical care, foolish parents who are a part of a foolish religious organisation, which, itself, has a long track record of letting innocent kids die from lack of medical care … Innocent victims, irrational idiots, and a religious death-cult, all in one. It’s the perfect trifecta to go ahead and incriminate these air-headed loons with.

Chances are good that these parents will be found guilty, which they are, and will be jailed for it, as they should be. At any rate, their defense certainly isn’t holding much water – but then, religious excuses to legal crimes rarely do.

Church members offer a circular argument that prosecutors must crack.

Since Followers rarely go to doctors, most have no medical records, which makes it hard to document the progression of an illness. Their lack of medical experience, they argue, also leaves them unaware of symptoms that may indicate a medical emergency.

The Worthingtons, for example, said they thought their daughter had a bad cold rather than a life-threatening blood infection. The 15-month-old child also had a growth on her neck that would swell to softball-size lump, but it was never evaluated by a doctor.

If the Beagleys contend that Neil also showed no signs that he was nearing death, prosecutors will be challenged to show otherwise.

Of course, this reasoning is perfectly nonsensical. So, parents should only take their kids to the doctor if they’re certain it’s life-threatening or bad enough to warrant not going through vacuous hocus-pocus first? For crying out loud, the girl had a recurring lump the size of a softball sticking out of her neck! Sure, it could’ve meant nothing at all. Then again, it also could’ve meant that she was in the grips of a deadly illness. Which, obviously (and tragically), she was. I dunno about you, but if I ever see any lump at all, the first thing that comes to mind is not “ignore it”, but “get that motherfucker looked at by someone who knows what to look for”. Ie.: a doctor.

It’s a worthless argument to use that Neil “[show] no signs that he was nearing death”. As a parent, it is your prime prerogative that whenever your child is sick, especially at such a young and helpless age, you get them to a doctor. Worst case scenario? You wasted a few hours, tops, making sure your kid was safe and just had a runny nose or something. It’s a price I’d be willing to pay if it meant I had the chance of catching any nefarious problems before they grew out of control.

The report also brings up that old question:

How can teenage children make informed decisions if they’ve never been to a doctor, have no understanding of their condition and have been raised to reject medical treatment?^[1] Do children have the right to refuse medical care?^[2] How much responsibility do parents have for the health of teenage children?^[3]

In order:

• ^[1] They can’t. Which is why decisions must be made for them.

• ^[2] No. Not until they are major, at which point they can screw their lives up at will. Until then, they are to be kept alive and healthy. (Odd how some act like that’s a bad thing.)

• ^[3] All of it, period. It’s their child, and it is their responsibility to make sure that the child stays alive and healthy.

Have we learned the lesson, class? Well, then, dismissed! And don’t be afraid to tell quacks, frauds and faith-healing twits what deadly charlatans they are, with the blood and suffering of innocent children on their hands.

(via @religionnews)