In Weston,Wisconsin an 11 year old girl suffered from diabetic ketoacidosis. However, Her family refused to even take her to a doctor for a diagnosis. They believed that the sickness was a "test of faith" and that the young girl would quickly recover after a week or so after some "emergency prayer". She appeared to be weaker and slower for about two weeks before her death, which was ironically on Easter Sunday, and may have shown milder symptoms for up to two months before. The parents believed that it was just signs of puberty and that faith would heal her. Both the mother and the father are being tried for second-degree reckless homicide.
First of all, I would like to say wow. I am a Christian, but this seems extreme to me. This girl lost her life because she wasn't even given a chance to see a doctor. God is a healer, but completely relying on His power for medical treatment seems very Old Testament. I think that the parents really misjudged this. Diabetes is exactly what scientists are working on healing, and making progress. Why not take advantage? What do all of you guys think?
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This brings in so many controversial issues of religion vs. science. Like are doctors going agianst God by saving lives? That may not be the best way to phrase that question but the idea is the same. I suppose you could say that scientists are cheating God as well. I'd have to agree with you Addie, the idea of "testing" faith with someone's life and relying on God's healing powers seems very Old Testament.
I would definitely agree that the parents misjudged the call. Way to ignore life-saving technology.
However, this somehow reminds me of the polygamy story that's been on the news recently--about the 400 or so children found on some raid of a polygamist compound in Texas. The US is made up of a diverse population and apparently not even the federal government can make everyone follow the same rules. Some crazy religious beliefs are out there and we can't keep up with all of them...
My comment is totally far out, but I really thought for a moment that maybe these parents were trying to make a point about the current administration and its obsession with "just put your faith in God and everything will be all right" through their daughter.
I think it's really good that the parents are being tried for homocide.They were being absolutely rediculous in this situation The poor girl was just a child and had o way of taking care of her own and because her parents were so stbbornly religious, she had to pay the price. This is a bad situation all around. I hope this can at least set an example so that other people arent so stupid in the future
I have to respectfully disagree with addie. I don't think that "god is a healer." There is no evidence that shows that he can heal any sickness, and it is therefore completely idiotic and reckless of that girl's parents to avoid medical treatment. They should be convicted of homicide and sentenced to an extensive stay in prison to think about what they've done.
Well, I'm not really religious or anti-religious, but no matter how I look at this, the parents seem insane. Great if God might heal someone, but why not use medicine too? I can understand looking to God and faith in situations where medicine doesn't have a high chance of working, such as some forms of cancer, but even then, using the logical path of science should still be the first choice. Those parents should be tried for as much as is legal, not to mention being banned from taking care of any kids...
All completely disagree with Greg but not support Addie either :). Um God is a healer to those who want him to be, if you want to be atheist than go ahead but don't count on him coming around in your time of need. And Addie, does it matter if it is Old Testament or not, parents are allowed to control their child's medical treatment and maybe they did think that was the best solution. Guess what, tons of people can choose to live on a respirator but they don't, maybe they should be sued to. It is horrible that the girl died but for all you that throw up the flag "I am an American" guess what that allows you to make choices, good or bad some times but everyone who knew the family knew they believed that way so maybe "America" should have told them not to have a child and that would have prevented the whole thing, oh wait they can't. So yes, I do not feel it was not handled very well but you can not punish someone for believing in a certain religion can you? At least not here I don't think ya can!
Obviously, the girl's parents were big believers in God and had complete faith in His powers. There is nothing wrong with that; but when you combine it with ignorance, it can be deadly. These parents ignored scientific and medical facts and relied on faith. It was bad judgment. They should have gotten her checked up. It's strange how these parents have been living for over 30 years and were parents for 11 years and still ignored the sickness as a curable sickness. But once and awhile, you're going to see some weird and extreme situations where people use faith and God to do extreme things, like that cult in Texas. Anyway, I completely agree with the indictment of the parents.
Well, it's great that America let's you make choices, and if those lead to your own death, that's fine by me, but if your choices end up killing someone else, even if they are your own daughter, then I think there's a problem. The problem isn't their beliefs but how they responded (or didn't respond) to their daughter's sickness. If the daughter had made this choice then I suppose it would have been fine, but the authority a parent gets over their children only goes so far.
I think it was totally irresponsible and irrational for these parents to ignore their daughter's symptoms. They allowed their child to die because they refused to take her to a hospital to even get examined. I think was completely ignorant of them to disregard all the access they had to medical treatment. Despite their beliefs, I think in the context of society it is unacceptable to deny a sick child access to medicine, and I think it is completely appropriate that they be convicted.
I guess the parents did what they thought was right - even though it did cost the live of their daughter. I think the parents should have opened up to other means of "healing" like science. They obviously thought that what they were doing was right, and we think otherwise. But you'd think that people living in a modern day country with technology would be open to the fact of using it. But I think the parents were foolish - maybe having faith in modern technology and people is also another type of faith. But this whole problem begs the question - were these parents brainwashed as a kid or are they just really religious – or anti modern technology? I know that religious fanatics act this way and reject modern society and are very narrow minded, so I think this has something to do with that as well. But to agree with everybody else as well, you'd wonder that these parents have been living in modern society and had a kid in modern society, so wouldn't they realize the importance of modern technology? The parents were just irresponsible. Most people would try almost anything to save their children’s' lives - even if it meant trying something they don't believe in, like modern technology.
If God really is a healer then maybe he created modern medicine in an effort to help his people. Therefore I think the parents should have taken their daughter to a doctor, and it was negligent not to. They should be tried and convicted.
I agree that having faith is important. But having faith is different from just sitting around doing nothing. You can have faith that you're going to become a millionaire, but it's not going to happen unless you take action. Money won't just fall into your lap. You have to work for it. Now, if that family brought their daughter to the doctors, then it's possible that their faith might have helped to cure her, but tere's no way it's goiung to work if you don't even try. And proving faith by sacrificing your daughter is terrible. IT's like those insane vegans whho want their child to be vegans too, so they' don't let the babies breast feed, so the abies die. I'm not against vegetarians (my dad is a vegetarian) but you can take something too far.
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