Canadian Couple Allegedly Tried to Cure Sick Son with Maple Syrup Leading to his Death
Source: NY Daily News
A Canadian couple allegedly gave their sick infant son maple syrup and other alternative remedies instead of medicine letting him suffer for weeks before he died of meningitis.
David and Collet Stephan, from Alberta, are now on trial for the death of their 18-month-old boy, Ezekiel. The parents who run Truehope Nutritional Support, a nutritional supplements company, and openly oppose vaccinations are accused of avoiding professional medical help while experimenting with homemade quack cures.
The parents have pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to provide the necessities of life for their son, who died in March 2012 at 18 months old.
Ezekiel had a fever, runny nose and trouble breathing for weeks before his death, according to Global News. Rather than rushing him to a doctor, his mother allegedly looked up his symptoms online and tried treating him for what she believed to be a respiratory infection, prosecutors said.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/canadian-couple-allegedly-gave-sick-son-syrup-not-meds-article-1.2558019
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)and forced sterilization. Some people are just too fucking dumb to be parents.
virgogal
(10,178 posts)If they truly believed what they were doing was in the best interests of the child so be it---they weren't trying to harm him.
We have all been led to believe by the pharmaceutical companies that they have a cure for just about anything.
Maybe this couple did not believe that. I don't believe that.
The loss of the child is enough punishment IMHO.
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)the child could have been helped by even the most basic of modern medicine. They murdered the kid and their idiotic beliefs are irrelevant IMO.
Gene Debs
(582 posts)thing to have a mind that's so open that the wind whistles through it. This child died a slow, agonizing death. These assholes need to go to prison.
EllieBC
(3,039 posts)People dislike pharmaceutical companies because they make money. But yet a lot of these homeo and naturopathic businesses also make plenty of money but no one ever says anything about that.
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/calgary/jury-trial-truehope-toddler-dies-trial-underway-1.3479460
virgogal
(10,178 posts)Nitram
(22,853 posts)Those who refuse to vaccinate their children will be responsible for killing other people's children.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)you okay with that?
Mika
(17,751 posts)There's a bit in many foods, including corn.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)it's no big deal!
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)"that they have a cure for just about anything."
I would say this is both accurate and inaccurate, the fact is that there are a lot of diseases out there where, even if the medicines don't directly cure them, they can prevent them(vaccines), or treat the symptoms so they aren't severe enough to cause us permanent injury. The fact is that we do not bury our children that often anymore, childhood mortality due to disease, congenital conditions and injury has plummeted over the past century or so, and the biggest reasons are due to hygiene, vaccinations and antibiotics.
Why people all of the sudden doubt the efficacy of "traditional medicine" is not because that medicine is suddenly not working, though challenges such as antibiotic resistant bacteria are a concern. Its because the very effectiveness of our modern medicine has allowed us to raise generations of people who have never had friends die of smallpox, or know anyone crippled by polio or measles, or heard a baby with whooping cough, and that's just the vaccines. They also never had friends who died from an infection started at a scraped knee, or dying of bronchitis, flu, and numerous other diseases we can reduce the severity of enough to prevent death and possibly permanent scarring.
So we have generations of people being raised today in a largely disease and childhood death free environment(in the United States at elast), and as a result, their risk assessments are heavily skewed. They would rather risk their children getting infected with Measles, which they don't view as that dangerous, because of their lack of experience with it, than risk their children getting an extremely rare reaction from the vaccine, or making up risks entirely, such as that about autism.
Another issue I find is this, alternative "medicine" proponents are more likely to offer "cures" than traditional pharmaceutical companies. So your statement would be more accurate said like this:
"We have all been led to believe by the alternative medicine industry that they have a cure for just about anything."
D Gary Grady
(133 posts)You're exactly right about this. People should be much more aware of how dramatic a change we've experienced in just the last century as a result of sanitation, improved medical care, and especially vaccines.
Most people know that life expectancy is much higher today that it was historically, but not necessarily that by far the main reason is the astonishing improvement in childhood and infant morality. The term "life expectancy" by itself essentially means average age of death, and in times gone by that average was brought way down by the vast numbers of children who died.
Lifespans for adults have improved as well, but less dramatically than people tend to think. Benjamin Franklin (like his parents) lived well into his 80s, for example, as did Jefferson and Madison. Adams reached 90. Farther back Plato was 80 or 81 when he died. Socrates only reached 71, but he was executed.
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)age, 60+ years, dramatically increases regardless of era. Its just that nowadays, in countries with decent access to health care, almost everyone survives to the age of 5 and beyond.
I really wish the sheltered little snowflakes of the alt med and anti-medicine movement would take a trip to any cemetery that is 100+ years old, and just wander around and look for the gravestones of the children that never really had an opportunity to live. They should also, if possible, talk to their oldest relatives, grandparents, great-grandparents, and see how many great-aunts and great-uncles they would have possibly known if they didn't die from diseases that today are easily preventable or treatable.
The Alternative "Medicine" movement is alluring, they offer easy answers to what are, in many cases, difficult situations and questions that are barely understood, even by the experts. The problem is their complete lack of methodology ensures that they can never find the right answer in how to treat diseases. Its not even trial and error, they skip the trial and go straight to the error.
D Gary Grady
(133 posts)My paternal grandfather was born in 1871 only six years after the Civil War. He and his first wife had five or six children, none of whom lived until adulthood. Such a large number of childhood deaths in a single family was fortunately not common even then, but it was not unknown either. And the loss of children was just as painful for parents as it would be today. His wife went into severe depression after the death of her last surviving child and after a time she died as well. In his fifties my grandfather got married again, to the woman who became my grandmother, and my father was born in 1925 and I was born in 1950.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)I guess they won't look so new-age and dreamy behind bars...Wonder if they will come up with new forms of woo in jail using soap and roach urine
Warpy
(111,327 posts)which is why smart states and provinces have public health laws with real teeth in them.
What I want to know is when charges will be filed against that negligent "naturopathic doctor" who didn't even see the kid before spouting nonsense at the parents.
This is neglect of a child resulting in death.
EllieBC
(3,039 posts)Sacrificed at the altar of stupidity and homeopathy and general fear of science.
Lucky Luciano
(11,258 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)EllieBC
(3,039 posts)It's why we have had measles and pertussis outbreaks in the lower mainland and the island.
Cavallo
(348 posts)remedies. A natural path would have sent them to the hospital and said go get tests.
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)medical claims, that's all they are, frauds and quacks.
Response to Humanist_Activist (Reply #16)
Cavallo This message was self-deleted by its author.
NickB79
(19,258 posts)I have a friend who went to a naturopath rather than a REAL doctor, to the point that the (lack of) treatment he gave required her to be rushed to the ER. She almost fucking DIED because of that quack.
You have far more faith in naturopaths than I ever will. They're just a small step up from faith healers laying on hands to drive away demons, IMO.
Cavallo
(348 posts)I have both a physician and a natural path. Ciao.
EllieBC
(3,039 posts)But unfortunately, some don't. And in this case, the parents put their child's life into the hands of someone who isn't much better than a faith healer.
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)Their son only lived 18 fucking months, that's it, his life extinguished. Thanks to their erroneous beliefs in "alternative medicine" they basically decided to reenact what the child mortality rates were before the advent of modern medicine.
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)Well, Chriistian objections really. Although that particular theocratic get out of jail free card may not work quite as well in Canada.