Those of you who have been reading this site for a while know that I really have no problem with any faith, unless its precepts somehow result in direct harm to others, or its followers get a bit overzealous and begin beheading, enslaving or otherwise infringing on others’ rights.
I do believe that children have a right to expect protection and love and care from their parents. Parents bring children into this world. The kids don’t really have a choice in the matter. They aren’t capable of taking care of themselves, and they must rely on their parents to care for them. It’s the ultimate responsibility for a parent. They’re entrusted with this fragile new life that is completely dependent on them. And when parents betray that trust, to me, there’s little that’s more vile.
So it was with this particular case of Madeline Kara Neuman, whose religious zealot, psycho parents decided prayer would cure their daughter’s undiagnosed, untreated diabetes, instead of actual doctors! They denied this little girl medical care, and she died while they prayed to their twisted, imaginary deity to save her.
The state rightfully put her demented bitch mother on trial for homicide.
A Weston woman, accused of praying
instead of seeking medical attention for her dying daughter, suffered a
medical emergency as her homicide trial got under way but appeared OK
about 30 minutes later.Her
case is believed to be the first of its kind in Wisconsin involving
faith healing in which someone died and another person was charged with
a homicide.Prosecutors had begun laying
out their case against Leilani Neumann, 41, on Saturday morning. About
20 minutes in to their opening statement, as they described the girl’s
condition the day before she died, Neumann put her head in her arms on
the table.Moments later her attorneys
expressed concern, asking for a recess so they could get her some air.
She appeared visibly weak as her husband and others escorted her from
the courtroom to a downstairs office.Judge Vincent Howard ordered court security to call 911 and have Neumann medically evaluated.
This abhorrent, murderous extremist got medical care when she needed it, which is more than one can say for her poor daughter, who would not have died if her lunatic parents had just taken her to a doctor. This zealot didn’t deserve medical attention. Maybe the court should have just said a prayer, and moved on to find her guilty of cold-blooded murder.
I have no sympathy for these people. They claim to have loved their child, but they killed her. Just like that. For some weird, twisted concept of a “God,” that allows a little girl to die, because her parents are too stupid to get her condition treated. They can weep and whimper all they want about their loss, but their loss was their callous fault.
And there’s a special place in hell for them. I hope they burn there.
May 17, 2009 @ 18:53:08
These incidents always trouble me. The problem is, where do you draw the line, and how? What about the Amish? Does the State have the right (nay, the responsibility?) to take children away from fanatic vegetarians? What if the Vegetarians have taken office, and the shoe is on the other foot? Shall we take children of Klansmen away? How about children of people who believe Afro-centric History? Shall the children of Irish Catholics be taken from them and put if good Protestant home? It was done once.I sometimes wish there was an independent authority I could trust to audit Child Protection Services, and tell me how many lives they ruin (through malice, prejudice, and simple stupidity) for each child they save. If the ratio is even close to 1:1 I would be pleasantly surprised.
May 17, 2009 @ 18:58:02
I think there are a lot of grey areas here, but in this particular case and other cases like it where medical care was specifically withheld and the child died because of it, it’s cut and dry. Radical vegetarianism hasn’t been linked to be a direct cause of death, as far as I know. Withholding medical care from an obviously sick child is.
May 18, 2009 @ 04:12:49
Despite your disbelief, there is a God. That is about all I can tell because that is all he showed me. NO, I am not delusional, nor am I particularly religious, but he is there. I am not trying to convert you, Hell, I don’t know enough about it myself to speak with any confidence, I just know He is there.I am just like you. I detest people who blame God for the bad that they cause. Saying we will pray, but we will not seek medical help for our child is detestable. I would bet everything I own that they don’t sit in their house and pray for food, or electricity, or gasoline, or water to drink. I would double down on that bet that they took steps to provide those things for themselves. That they say they did it in the name of God, doesn’t mean He doesn’t exist. It just means they are not fit to walk this earth when they do something like this.
May 18, 2009 @ 10:14:32
SA – even if God exists, I have trouble believing that it’s an insecure, vindictive, evil type of God that would prevent parents from taking care of a sick child. I meant that their twisted, demented deity cannot possibly exist in a benevolent universe, not that God positively doesn’t exist. That I cannot know positively know.
May 19, 2009 @ 23:32:03
Nikki,Just an observation here, but what those parents adhere to is not a belief in God, but a belief in a particular religion; one which teaches its followers that the “world’s” ways are evil and must be shunned at all costs. Prayer and supplication are the only allowable routes open to this religion. What is so ironic is that in order to shun modern medicine, these folks have to believe that the doctors, researchers, etc who have been involved in the art of medicine all these years got their intellegence, ability and talent from some place other than the same God they credit with giving them their laudable charateristics.ALL religion misses the mark, since it is MANS WAY OF PLEASING GOD…
May 19, 2009 @ 23:41:59
Shifty, I’m not impugning their beliefs in God. Each person’s beliefs are their own. Faith is faith. What I am absolutely repulsed by is their twisted idea of a God – a God that would prevent them from getting help for someone who desperately needs it! It’s SICK!
May 20, 2009 @ 01:00:20
That’s exactly the point I was making…they’ve mistaken belief in a relious doctrine for belief in God. That’s what I meant by religion being man’s way of trying to please God….Not the same thing as being in a relationship with God, which is the core of authentic Christianity.
May 21, 2009 @ 14:09:30
This is a diabolical perversion of logic and faith. It is the same misapplication of comprehension of scriptures that lead people to believe the Earth is 6000 years old and evolution somehow invalidates God… This misapplication has now caused a death. It will cause another death of a 13yo boy with brain dead zealots for parents in this case:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090520/ap_on_re_us/us_forced_chemoThese cases are no different from a parent that beats their kid bloody and breaks their arms. If life threatening danger to the child is imminent, then action must be taken. It is one of the rare times when gov’t interference is acceptable.Wouldn’t gov’t interference have been preferable in this last (I promise) link?http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-child-blinded,0,2981403.story
May 28, 2009 @ 23:57:08
Nothing to do with their imaginary friend in the sky.Doesn’t anyone have a right to refuse medical for any reason?And a parent makes those choices for a minor child,yes?
May 30, 2009 @ 02:47:57
Parents have a responsibility to their children. In this case, their action – or non action – killed this child.