I am not a religious person. I was raised a Quaker, which has directly influenced how I feel about religion. I understand people have faith, I respect it, I just don't.
But when I read about the family in WI who allowed their daughter to die due to untreated type 1 diabetes, preferring to pray for God to heal her instead, I was absolutely livid. How could you allow your child to stop talking and walking and just think that's ok? Just think that God will make it all better?
I was thrilled to hear that the parents in this case are being prosecuted. I do believe that people have the right to practice whatever religion they choose to practice, but when that religion interferes with the health and well-being of a child, it becomes abuse. If an adult chooses, for religious reasons, to not recieve a blood transfusion or any other type of medical care, that's their choice and should be respected, but children should not have that choice made for them by their parents.
Parents don't have the right to watch their kids die over preventable diseases in the name of religion. These cases should be prosecuted and I'm glad to see that the tide seems to be turning.
But it still makes me sick and saddened beyond belief that this child was lost to a treatable disease.
I haven't been in those parents' shoes -- or any parent's shoes -- but I see two angles on this that "everybody" seems to be forgetting in light of the State's belief that It knows what is best for everyone.
The first angle is the religious view of all disease being of Divine origin, for Divine ends, and that human intervention runs counter to the Divine Plan: that is to say, that an illness is either the Deity's way of testing one's faith, or the Deity's way of "bringing one home". A more Darwinistic person might suggest that if person is so "flawed" as to need constant medical intervention to stay alive, then s/he is a drain on social resources and should be allowed to die.
The second angle is that of parental rights. I agree that as a society, we have an expectation that all extraordinary medical measures should and must be taken to prolong life, no matter the financial, emotional, or psychological cost. HOWEVER -- we ALSO have an expectation that the parent has the legal and moral right to care for the child according to the parent's legal, moral, and ethical beliefs. In the case where a parent's beliefs honestly contravene medical intervention, then the parents should not be held LEGALLY responsible for the child's disability or death. (Morally? That's an issue between the parents and whatever Deity or Deities to which they ascribe. Life insurance? That's a whole different can of worms.)
If this is the case of the child who died about a month ago, the media reports make it sound as if the parents were simply too cheap or too afraid to have the girl seen to, and used "religion" as an excuse. If this is true, then the issue is not a "religious" one, and the public prosecution of the case will right the wrong this couple will have committed against those who truly believe that all illness is G-d-given and must run its natural course, regardless of the outcome. However, if the parents honestly believed throughout the process that the Deity would either cure the child or "take her home", then I would defend the parents' First Amendment rights to care for her according to their beliefs.
To do any less would be to deny every person of any faith, the right to practice that faith within these United States.
So children should go through months of agony just for the sake of some religion? I remember how I felt when I was diagnosed as type 1 and I was far from dying. To continue and worsen in that state is sheer torture. I don't believe any religion should have the right to torture another, not for any belief.
Oops, I am responding to the above responder.
If a prayer isn't answered within a day, it usually means God wants you to look further. Maybe these parents didn't want to spend the money. Maybe they had no insurance. Then God had a good reason for taking the child. Sometimes we only see the top of things, these parents "thought" they were doing the right thing, I guess they learned the hard way. God had the last word, God gave us doctors too, and if we ignore the bodies warnings and do not go to the doctor, it's not God's fault. The child is better off with Our Heavenly Father.