Via Fox News:

WESTON, Wis. — An 11-year-old girl died after her parents prayed for healing rather than seek medical help for a treatable form of diabetes, police said Tuesday.

Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said Madeline Neumann died Sunday.

“She got sicker and sicker until she was dead,” he said.

Vergin said an autopsy determined the girl died from diabetic ketoacidosis, an ailment that left her with too little insulin in her body, and she had probably been ill for about 30 days, suffering symptoms like nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness.

The girl’s parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, attributed the death to “apparently they didn’t have enough faith,” the police chief said.

They believed the key to healing “was it was better to keep praying. Call more people to help pray,” he said.

The mother believes the girl could still be resurrected, the police chief said….Read More

This story angers me, a lot.

I can’t believe the authorities allowed the other children to remain in the home. This child’s death was the direct result of the negligence of the parents. These people should not only have their other two children taken away, but IMO should be jailed for criminal negligence and/or child endangerment at the very least.

There are many religions which choose prayer/faith over science/medicine, and while I believe it is utterly asinine, if people are stupid enough to allow themselves to remain ill, that is their choice. Consenting adults should be free to make any decision they like about their own bodies. A child, however, does not have the ability to make that choice. They are at the mercy of their parents’ decisions.

It’s quite possible that faith and prayer can have a positive psychosomatic effect on the human body.

However, to allow a child to suffer and die because of your blatant ignorance is horrifying at best. I don’t care if you have money or not, most hospitals will treat a critically ill person even without up front payment. Besides, no where in that article did it say “we didn’t have any money so we were relying on God”, so that is a moot point.

Again, these morons should be locked up, have their children taken away, and when they are released from jail, they should be sterilized so they cannot have any more children, because they are obviously not competent enough to properly care for them.