Idaho’s faith-healing debate pits child welfare against parental rights (Repubs are pro-child death)

[muriel_volestrangler]

Several of the children buried here at Peaceful Valley Cemetery died from preventable ailments like pneumonia and food poisoning. And 70 percent of these children died after 1972, when religious exemptions protecting faith healers from charges of neglect, abuse and murder were enacted in Idaho and around the country. If a child dies or is abused in Idaho, law states that a parent can’t be found guilty if they believe in spiritual healing.
...
But today, some people wonder how many of the dead children here could have been saved. Idaho is one of only six U.S. states that allow religious exemption for negligent homicide, manslaughter or capital murder. While some have called for the Gem State’s law to be revised, efforts have gained little traction. A bill introduced last year was swiftly nixed by Idaho’s House speaker, and lawmakers say they haven’t heard of any bills coming forward in this year’s session. And this week, the House State Affairs Committee passed a bill — despite emotional testimony — that recognizes that Idaho parents and guardians “have a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the care, custody, education and control of their children.” Many expressed concern that this was just another covert protection for faith healers

Efforts to discuss Idaho’s laws by Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty (CHILD), a national organization working to protect children, have been met coolly by the Idaho Governor’s Task Force on Children at Risk. “The governor has indicated that he will not take a position on this legislation, and therefore the task force will not be taking a position,” its chairman wrote in an email last fall to CHILD. “Individuals may act independently as they desire.”
...
But Rep. Christy Perry (R-Nampa) said the law, as it stands, represents the constituents of her district, Canyon County, where Peaceful Valley Cemetery sits. “They have a clear understanding of what the role of government should be,” she said. “[It] isn’t how to tell me how to live my life.”

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/22/idahos-faith-healing-debate-pits-child-welfare-against-parental-rights.html

The House Speaker, Scott Bedke, is. of course, a Republican. Perry is a Republican. So, of course, is Janet Trujillo, who introduced the bill to protect the gullible who follow faith healers. Thankfully, the Democratic minority leader opposed the bill, saying it "overturns a whole body of law that we have put around the role of society in protecting children ... I think that this is a very dangerous act for child welfare". But it passed (that House is 56 R:14 D).

CHILD says:

Support a repeal bill: Protect Idaho children from medical neglect

Idaho’s laws protecting children from religion-related medical neglect may well be the worst in the nation. Only five other states have a statutory exemption from the involuntary manslaughter or negligent homicide of a minor child based on religious beliefs which bar or discourage medical care.

The main faith-healing sect in Idaho with such beliefs is the Followers of Christ. Child mortality among them appears to be extremely elevated. By recent count there are 208 children under the age of 18 who are buried in Peaceful Valley Cemetery, one of several used by the Idaho Followers of Christ. There are a total of 604 graves in that cemetery. Nearly 35% of them are of children who died before age 18 and stillbirths. In contrast, Idaho Vital Statistics data show that during the years 2002-2011 only 3.37% of deaths statewide are of minor children or stillbirths. 35% vs 3.37% — one doesn’t have to do much math to see that there’s a huge difference. In addition, the leading cause of death among Idaho children older than one year is accidents. If we had a way to separate out disease-related mortality from accidental deaths, child mortality in the Followers of Christ would look even astronomically higher.

The deaths of Followers of Christ children in Idaho discussed in the links above have been happening for decades. CHILD has written to Idaho officials and media about them as long ago as 1999, but has gotten no response. But in late 2013, thanks in large part to the investigative work of KATU-TV in Portland, Oregon, some attention began to finally be paid to the deaths of Idaho children who have been born in faith-healing sects.
...

The religious defense to “injury to children” states, “The practice of a parent or guardian who chooses for his/her child treatment by prayer or spiritual means alone shall not for that reason alone be construed to have violated the duty of care to such child.” Idaho Code 18-1501(4)
And the religious defense to “criminal nonsupport” states, “The practice of a parent or guardian who chooses for his child treatment by prayer or spiritual means alone shall not for that reason alone be construed to be a violation of the duty of care to such child.” Idaho Code 18-401(2)

http://childrenshealthcare.org/?page_id=1869

That's 18th century levels of child death and stillbirth. This is child abuse. This is deliberate neglect and killing of the innocent, powerless children, for the sake of a patriarchal religion. And Republicans are supporting this abomination. Monsters.

Via Why Evolution Is True.

[edgineered]

1. These same courts would throw the book

at a non-theist for hoping the child would get better. Sprinkle a little faith on that hope and its a whole different story.

[cbayer]

3. Say what?

I'm not seeing how a court would throw the book at a non-theist who hoped a child would get better.

Can you give me a scenario in which that might be the case?

[edgineered]

4. here

from the first paragraph in the OP

Several of the children buried here at Peaceful Valley Cemetery died from preventable ailments like pneumonia and food poisoning. And 70 percent of these children died after 1972, when religious exemptions protecting faith healers from charges of neglect, abuse and murder were enacted in Idaho and around the country. If a child dies or is abused in Idaho, law states that a parent can’t be found guilty if they believe in spiritual healing.

[cbayer]

5. Well, yes. I saw that and it is truly horrific, but I can't see how it relates to the

statement that you made that a court would throw the book at a non-theist who hoped a child would get better.

I just can't imagine a scenario where such a thing would happen.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. I presume they mean *just* hoped their child would get better

The 2 sections in the OP from the law do point that way - care with 'prayer or spiritual means alone' gets let off.

[cbayer]

7. Oh, perhaps you are right. I didn't read it that way at all.

That would make more sense.

[Downwinder]

2. Can't get much more Pro-Choice.

“have a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the care, custody, education and control of their children.”

Denying medical treatment = very late term abortion? Like P.K. Dick's "The Pre-persons?"

[Kber]

8. So it's totally cool to let my kid die

If that's in line with my sincerely held beliefs.

But not cool if I chose to terminate a non- viable pregnancy?

WTF?