Wis. parents who prayed as diabetic daughter died charged

Very sad. raying:

 

Surely it was not the fact that they prayed that got them charged with murder, but the fact that they refused any medical treatment for her. Here is a slightly longer excerpt from the article, which appeared in today's Guardian [UK newspaper]:

Two parents who prayed as their 11-year-old daughter died of untreated diabetes were charged Monday with second-degree reckless homicide.

Family and friends had urged Dale and Leilani Neumann to get help for their daughter, but the father considered the illness "a test of faith'' and the mother never considered taking the girl to the doctor because she thought her daughter was under a "spiritual attack,'' the criminal complaint said.
"It is very surprising, shocking that she wasn't allowed medical intervention,'' Marathon County District Attorney Jill Falstad said. "Her death could have been prevented.''
Madeline Neumann died March 23 - Easter Sunday - at her family's rural Weston home. Her parents were told the body would be taken to Madison for an autopsy the next day. ``They responded, 'You won't need to do that. She will be alive by then,''' the medical examiner wrote in a report.


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They should go to jail for a long time for allowing their child to die without seeking medical treatment.

 

Amen, MP.

These parents are not being charged because they prayed. The title of this thread is thoroughly misleading.

 

==I agree 100%.

When I was in middle school there was a case in our community that was very simular to this. One of the boys went to my school and I believe he was in my grade. Anyway his younger brother died of the flu or something like that. The parents were charged because they never took him to a doctor or gave him medication. I don't know the end result but I think they should have gone to jail and the same thing with these parents. God has given us doctors and hospitals and he expects us to use them. What these parents did was not an act of faith, it was an act of abuse and neglect.

 

How does something like this happen? If she was diagnosed as a diabetic, there should have been someone besides the parents who knew of her medical condition. I don't know how that works legally, but some kind of medical intervention should have happened before it got to this point. If I had known something like that was going on, I would have called the police. They would have at least been able to examine her condition and would have callled a paramedic.

love,

Sopranette

 

I agree. It is not always God's will to heal (evidenced by His words to Paul, "My grace is sufficient"), and allowing your child to die instead of seeking medical help is inexcusable. They have three other children who could suffer the same fate if anything happens to them, and the parents rely on prayer instead of doctors. Try prayer first if the symptoms aren't too bad, but if they worsen then it's time to call a doctor. I never wait for it to get bad before calling my doctor. I always remember Paul.

 

Yeah, I reckon that's the way. "God, can you heal this kid?-- or do we need a doctor?" I guess God's an old general practioner, where you need a specialist.

 

They should have prayed as they took her to the doctor to get the diabetic supplies she needed.

I agree they should be charged and prosecuted.

 

True, but both the title, and the quote in the OP made absolutely no mention of refusing to get medical treatment, so they made it sound as though the parents were charged with murder because they were praying.

 

I often wonder why it is that there are Christians who do not realize that God uses doctors to help us?

 

You appropriately raise the question 'how does something like this happen?'

I am not on the jury, nor am I going to throw stones.......yet.

I see the date on this article is April 28th reporting of a death that took place March 23rd.

Was the condition of juvenile diabetes discovered before or after the autopsy?

If before....then, yes, there appears to be neglect.
If diabetes was unknown and undiagnosed before her death, then, at the very best and kindest opinion I could pass is that it sounds like the parents exercised very poor judgement in not getting medical care for their child. Unknown to me are what were the childs symptoms; the onset and duration and progression. Friends and relatives are often quick to voice their opinions in such circumstances....after the fact, but to what extent do their comments as reported by the press reflect their actual witness and involvement with this family?

Yes, Sopranette, if a medical condition exists and the medical community is aware that the parents are neglecting care, there are procedures for challenging and intervening for the childs welfare.

It is so sad when faith in God gets all mixed up like this:
God will never tempt us to do wrong.... not even as an exercise of faith. "Faith" is a poor excuse for neglect or abuse, and does nothing to glorify God. Unfortunately, many people get faith mixed up with feelings...... and feelings are temporal and untrustworthy.

I feel sadness over the child's death and their loss and also their poor judgement. Saddness, too, that this will follow this family in so many ways.

 

What evidence is there that these parents are Christians? Many people are "religious" and even believe there's a God, but that doesn't make them Christians.

 

Do we punish ignorance?

The rejection of medical healing by, or for, reason of faith in God, displays a complete lack of knowledge of how God works. Limiting Him to the hands that boast, My faith is greater than yours because I do not trust the hands of men. When all the while, all healing is of God if it is instantaneous answered prayer or through invasive surgery or drug therapy.
If it is shown that these parents are just totally void of knowledge, then I say they have gotten their punishment already. Otherwise they should be put out of society for life.

Mel

 

The difference probably is that you had read the complete article. I hadn't, so I only knew what you wrote in the OP. The story hadn't hit the headlines over here, and the OP included no link to the full story. I got it by doing a Google search. There, I found that (as far as the charge was concerned) the fact that they were praying was incidental - the charge would have been the same if they had been hugging and kissing their daughter. They were charged because they refused her medical help.

Possibly everyone in America knew the story before reading the OP - I didn't, so I apologise that I did not understand the OP immediately.