Baby Death and other unnecessary nonsense.
Posted by December | Posted in MISC. | Posted on 09-07-2009
Tags: MISC.
9
I like to think that one day I will start to admire the faith that people have that everything will be okay so long as they continue to believe.
However, as a longstanding pessimist I simply cannot help but brace myself for the very worst case scenario. When I read about parents refusing medical care on the basis that their god will take care of their children, a practice termed “faith healing,” I question not only the existence of logic but as well as the parents sanity.
Carl “Brent” Worthington’s 15 month old little girl died from complications after they spent her last hours annointing her with oil, praying over her and ignoring the fact that the baby had a cyst that continued to block her airway as well as a raging case of pneumonia. Brent and his wife Raylene didnt even think of calling a doctor, though their baby was deteriorating in front of them. I assure you, these two wont be winning parent of the year, this year or next, but is what they did a crime? Is trusting in an unseen god to calm the fevers of innocent children, a crime? I guess we will find out soon, as the case is tried in Oregon.
I have three boys, three rugged and careless boys. When one of these crazy and often clumsy boys gets a sniffle or congestion we do our best to ride it out without the use of kids tylenol and antibiotics. When they need stitches or just can’t shake that ear infection, we make the phone call. Doctors are probably helpful where you come from but around here, most of them wasted alot of their parents money on an education they dont really use. Still, when things get to a certain level, when my thermometer and diligence can no longer handle the situation my children go to their doctor, one of the few physicians I trust in the area.
One note for Raylene on being a mom: It is your responsibility to take care of your children and because your husband says that you have to listen to what he says, you probably killed your child with inaction. Sleep well tonight.
The blogosphere is abuzz with opinions on faith healing, where one parent states that they “never considered” medical treatment for their child, another will throttle them with cries of child abuse. Everyone has their stance, and while I personally find religion silly and inadequate, I respect your right to practice whatever you find most appealling.
However, refusing medical treatment because you think you can handle it is all well and good, until your child dies because you didnt happen to catch the tick bite, or you didn’t get the antibiotics necessary for some (even minor) illness like pneumonia. It crosses the line into neglect and even murder, depending on the circumstances, and should be prosecuted as such.
Faith Healing has never been an option for my family, mostly because I like my children to be alive. Having faith is fantastic, for you, but please dont sacrifice your child on the altar of stupidity, what a tragic way to go.
For Brent Worthington medical treatment "is not a question. It's not even thought."
What do you think about Faith Healing?
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I don’t know if I’d use the term “child abuse”, as abuse is indicative of an overt act. I would definitely consider it negligent, and would not hesitate to tell one who believes otherwise that point.
I do have religion, but I believe that we were given these medical procedures not to affront God, but of his will. Those that refuse treatments under belief that “God will provide” are kidding themselves, especially since God has provided.
Great blog
Oh, this topic just gets me going. I am a Christian woman through and through. When Emily was born; she was so ill that those first few days we were unsure if she would make it. Did I pray for God to heal her? You bet I did. I also sat down with the doctors and discussed the best course of treatment for her. Two years and one heart surgery later; Em is a beautiful girl with a wonderful life ahead of her. I like to believe that God gave the doctors the knowledge necessary to give her this chance.
I don’t question anyone’s faith; I just question how they can hide behind it to abuse their child. Yes, in my eyes “faith healing” is abuse and these parents should be charged in the death of their child.
Okay, I could go off on huge tangent so I best stop here.
I am appauled by this. Anyone who thinks that some “god” will magically heal their dyeing child is INSANE, and should be sent somewhere else. If medical treatment was against God’s will, we wouldn’t have it in the first place! People would be dieing left right and center.
I would concider this child abuse and neglect, as the poor suffering baby could have never asked for the help she needed. How the hell could a parents just sit there watching their baby dieing, knowing that the medical treatment WILL help her and not do anything about it.
That makes me fuckin sick to my stomache.
This is one of those things where my respect of other’s beliefs causes me to step back and do my best not to judge, as much as I want to. However, in my personal opinion even if I did honestly believe that making use of medicine when my child’s life is in danger was an affront to God, I would rather sin and use the damned medicine if that’s what it means, than to avoid sinning and lose a child because of it. I know God will forgive me, and I sin every day anyway in other ways, why not sin altruistically? That’s what I don’t get. Those parents that say it’s a sin to get medical help for their children “instead of trusting God” sin every day without even thinking about it, we all do… what’s one more? Personally, I do like to let God take care of things, but I do not believe that medicine is wrong either. When whatever health problem gets serious enough you can bet I am going to consider the medical help to make it better a gift from God.
Im not Christian, but I heard the reason for the “faith” and “god” being there is to forgive you for the sins you’ve done.. not to completely avoid them all together. I totally agree with what your saying.
The lunatics who believe in “faith healing” are just that, lunatics. I’m Catholic, and my faith is very important to me. But I believe God gave us medical practitioners (doctor’s, nurses, etc) and the ability to be healed by them for a reason. Its not that I don’t think God could heal that baby. I fully believe that He can. But I also believe that he uses those in the medical community to do that for Him, whatever His reasoning behind that may be. I think those parents should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law because that baby had no say in the matter whatsoever. Its despicable what they did and there is no excuse for it.
Ok, that was just plain stupid. Even if ultimately, everything is in God’s hands, God wants you to do what you can first. God gave us intellect and the freedom to choose what is right or wrong. After you have done everything that you can, THEN you start praying to God for a good result. THAT’S how you do it and what true faith is. Apparently these parents don’t even know what the heck they were doing and got a real twisted definition of “faith”!
I like to think I believe in God. But these days that’s about it. But if there is a God, He did a pretty damn good job creating in us the ability to think and reason and come up with ways to keep ourselves alive. There’s more faith in believing in medicine and in this God’s ability to save a life through another person than to believe He’ll just wave a hand and heal the world.
I would like to sacrifice these two idiots on the altar of stupidity and in exchange for their pathetic excuses for lives I’d like my son back and theirs and I’ll raise them both. I truly want to take my bare hands to the throats of parents such as these that would really subject their children to such things. And it’s also a poor show of faith. If God is real, I’m pretty certain He doesn’t like being put to the test.
I have spent many years studying different religions, cultures, and subcultures arising from various religious beliefs. I do not agree with a lot of them, for the record. But what I do believe is that, until they issue breeding licenses to human beings, people have the right to raise their children the way they see fit; even if it means they die prematurely due to parental neglect and/or ignorance. I feel the same outrage at the premature death of a beautiful child as anyone else does, but the legal slippery slope that we open ourselves up to (eroding our 1st, 2nd and 4th Amendment rights) as a human race is far more treacherous than the life that was unfairly and unjustly lost. We do not live in a perfect world, folks. The needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few or the one (as Spock so eloquently stated it in Star Trek III) and we must adopt attitudes that will perpetuate the human race, rather than fostering attitudes that engender hatred and resentment.