I seriously feel sick after reading that. That's just disgusting.

What the hell do you call letting there child die in front of them for no reason!How much more of a reason do you want?!

Incredible. If these people were just too lazy/uncaring to take her to the doctor they'd be arrested. But because it's their faith no one can touch them.

The parents should be locked up.

What the parents see as the cause of death?

'We didn't have enough faith.'

This just blows my fucking mind.

Religion: overcoming everything from common sense to parental instincts and self-preservation.

 This is what I always never got, why do we have to respect religion, why do we as a society have to respect religion, why does the law have to respect religion?? This is an ideology, that in this case and in many cases has shown itself to be dangerous to other people, especially to the most vulnerable of our society, children, who can be so abused by those they trust, without knowing that those that they trust, have no clue what they are doing, why do that cops keep those children there? probably because a majority are religious themselves, or the incorrect definition of abuse for that area, they are fed and have no physical signs of abuse, but not taking proper care of a child, and not taking them to the doctor when they are sick to the point of death, that is abuse, i have no clue where this isn't abuse. But hey, lets all respect these peoples rights to believe as they want, right, after all it is their right to believe in god, no matter HOW stupid or delusional it is. Yeah, bullshit but hey, imaginary beings are far more important that human life.

I can see the result if the parents decided to call on The Flying Spaghetti Monster and feed the kid nothing but pasta until she got better. These parents are asshats who need to be smacked upside the head. And sent to club Cuckoo.

That's sad...I'm glad Fox reported it so people can wake up to reality.

Slimm,

Absolutely horrific....This should be treated as murder and both parents should recieve the death penalty for what they did to their own daughter.  They murdered her and still have no guilt of what they have done.  This S#@# is just F#$### up.  I dont know how people can be a part of something that death has always surrounded.  Hopefully one day guilt will eat their insides up.  Yet the idiot authorites say there is no reason to remove the siblings....there is plenty of f@##@@@ reason to remove them from a home of murdering religious biggots like this. 

The previous two posts make no sense to me but I am responsible somehow. I was just trying to add the caveat "speaking to God is called prayer, when god speaks back it is called schizphrenia."

Yet another story of gruesome "faith parenting". Sadly, it is not the only one of it's kind, I actually witnessed one first hand:

A cousin of a good friend of mine, let's call her Laura, was diagnosed with anorexia at the tender age of 12.

My friend had a really close relationship with Laura since she was 4 years old, so much so that people outside their family often mistook them as being brother and sister. I should know, seeing how they spent so much time together and how much they loved each other, I made that very same assumption. Cliché as it may sound, you truly couldn't find two more loving cousins.

I started to notice something was wrong when my friend started to act strangely, always worried and distracted, unable to concentrate even on his school duties. He wouldn't tell me anything regardless of how many times I insisted. Days latter, I mentioned I haven't seen Laura around, and it was only then that, after braking down in tears, he told me about the diagnosis and her aunt's "solution" to the problem.

Being as she was an extremely devote catholic, she and her equally devote husband took the advice of a family friend to put their faith, along with the care of their child, in the hands of some prayer healing center outstate. They had been there for almost three weeks when my friend told me about this. He also told me neither he nor anyone else outside the center was allowed to see her or contact her in any way. The explanation for this, of course, was to minimize "sinful influences" from the outside world. I tried to find out if they at least had any psychological staff or medical facilities in said center to no avail, I couldn't even get the name of the place. No one knew about this "center" except Laura's family friend, the one who recommended it, and she wasn't speaking to me or to my friend (even if she knew him to be a fellow catholic, since they assisted to the same church). Her reason being the very same mentioned before, we posed too much of a risk as outsiders. The only solace she could offer was her encouragement for us to send our prayers to Laura. Indeed, most of Laura's family was encouraged by Laura's parents before their departure to the center to send their prayers and their love to her, so that she would recover.

All the prayers in the world couldn't save her. She died at the age of 12. And all the prayers in the world wouldn't prevented what was to follow next. Almost two months after Laura's burial my friend was diagnosed with depression. He went under psychotherapy coupled with psychofarmachologic treatment for the following two years.

A little note to end this story: Laura's parents tried to convince my friend's mother to take him to the prayer healing center, the same where their daughter died.

Why are people against religion, why are atheists (not all of us I know) want to end religions hold on people, because of cases like this, when the religious brainwashing over comes common sense, how often do atheists NOT take their sick kids to the doctor or hospital because, evolution will heal them, or because our prayers to Darwin will be answered? I mean serious, if those of the religious persuasion cannot understand why many fight against religion, here, these types of religious abuse is the reason, a belief, that suspends all common sense, logic and reason, for supernatural bullshit.

From the article:

How about neglect?  These "parents" should not have custody of their other two children, if they show this kind of judgment.  Neglect can be just as - if not more - dangerous (obviously) as abuse.

Essentially, they killed their child due to their religious beliefs.  Religion seems to be this one magic loophole to allow people to do this type of stupid shit, and not get thrown in jail.  "OH!  That wold be religious persecution!"  I suppose "common sense" is an oxymoron.

Now the latest the mother believes that she's not really dead and is in a coma. Right. After being pronunced dead and given an autopsy (and possibly emalmed) she might regain consciousness. Fucktards.

If she has enough faith, god will resurrect her daughter.....COME ON THIS IS FUCKING DELUSIONAL AT IT'S HEIGHT TAKE THOSE KIDS AWAY FROM HER BEFORE SHE KILLS ANOTHER ONE!!!! Oh sheesh, I can't stand fucking moronic people.

The more concerning question is, does she still have custody of the other two kids?

I mentioned this on a channel in YouTube and got this personal message sent to me –

“How you know she died? she simply went to sleep in her earthly body, and Jesus decided to open the gates of heaven for this girl. Nothing wrong atall, Praise THE LIVING LORD, the time is come for us now to either turn from our wicked ways onto the Lord or ignore the message and serve satan and die in our sin and pay for it in the lake of fire as many many do

WAKE UP, TIME IS SHORT NOW, JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY NAME THAT CAN SAVE AND THE DEVIL SIMPLY HATES THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST AMEN”

Pretty damn sick. This was my reply –

“How you know she died?"

The activity in her brained ceased therefore everything she was, is now gone. Do you have any empirical evidence to suggest otherwise?

"she simply went to sleep in her earthly body, and Jesus decided to open the gates of heaven for this girl. Nothing wrong atall,"

Evidence please? How can any decent human being not see the wrong in this? That girl deserved a life that her parents have taken from her. Do you believe that we should forgo medical treatment completely in favour of pray? If you or a family member needed medical treatment or face death, would you refuse and pray instead? Have you ever gone to a Doctors or Dentist - why not pray instead? My guess is you're a pathetic hypocrite.

I just received this e mail from the Freedom From Religion Foundation:

Law Sanctifies Child Homicide in Name of Faith

Memorialize 11-Year-Old Madeline by Removing Faith Exemption

March 28, 2008

As a memorial to the painful, frightening and needless death of Madeline Kara Neumann, the Wisconsin Legislature needs to finally show some gumption, and remove from the statutes its exemption sanctifying child homicide in the name of faith.

Statement by Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor
Freedom From Religion Foundation Co-Presidents

The death of an 11-year-old child from illness is always tragic, but what puts Madeline Kara Neumann's death last Sunday in a different class is that it is unforgiveable. Madeleine's long descent into diabetic ketoacidosis was unnecessary, preventable and the result of willful negligence on the part of her bible-believing parents.

It's one thing for an adult to choose prayer over medicine. But it is sheer child sacrifice to permit parents to eschew medical diagnosis and treatment of ill offspring. Parents do not own their children, much less have the right to endanger their children's lives by callously disregarding medical needs in the name of religion.

What's even more appalling is the ambivalent reaction: "Ethicists say case unclear," reports the Wausau Daily Herald. The Herald quoted bioethicist Dr. Norman Fost of the University of Wisconsin Medical school warning that it's important not to be moralistic or pass judgment on parents who think they can heal a child through prayer: "They believe they're helping their child; they love their child, and they believe prayer has an effect."

However deluded the parents may be, the rest of us need not countenance or indulge that dangerous delusion.

Dean Zuleger, the administrator of the Village of Weston, was quoted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel saying, "There is a general sense of grief and sadness. Because I know the family a bit, there is a great deal of concern for their well-being." The parents' well-being?

"Death draws out difficult issues" read a headline in the Journal Sentinel. While Madeline's drawn-out death, involving nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, weight loss and weakness, is very difficult to read about, there is nothing difficult at all about deciding where the blame lies. "The prayer of faith will heal the sick," according to James 5:15. The fault lies in society's laudatory attitude toward a "holy book" which teaches superstition and faith-healing, whose passages are latched onto by bible literalists, and whose obedience to such injunctions has been given a pass in the criminal statutes of many states.

The mother, Leilani Neumann, of Weston, Wis., publicly announced: "We need healing. We are going through the healing process." What about the healing process her daughter required? This helpless dependent of a middle-class family had last seen a doctor at the age of three, and recently had been pulled out of public schools for religious home-schooling, possibly to cover up symptoms of her illness, which, according to medical experts, would have surfaced at least six months ago.

Legally, the question will revolve over whether the family recognized the seriousness of the illness. A chronology has emerged which belies the family's claim that they did not realize how sick Madeline was, including logs of their calls around the country to relatives (who notified authorities just before her death that Madeline was seriously ill) and to David Eels, whose Unleavened Bread Ministries operates AmericasLastDays.com. Eels, of Pensacola, Fla., admitted he prayed for Madeline the day before she died, and that the family phoned him Sunday, as they followed an ambulance with their dead daughter to the hospital, asking him "if I would pray that the Lord would spare her and raise her up, which I did."

Leilani Neumann told reporters she and her husband are not worried about an investigation because "our lives are in God's hands. We know we did not do anything criminal. We know we did the best for our daughter we knew how to do."

Their "best" was not good enough. Nor is the religious exemption provided for by Wisconsin statutes, similar to what many states have adopted under pressure of the Christian Science lobby. What they don't realize is that doing nothing to help their daughter is parental negligence, which is criminal. The parents can still be charged, at least with some form of negligence or child abuse. But more action is required.

As a memorial to the painful, frightening and needless death of Madeline Kara Neumann, the Wisconsin Legislature needs to finally show some gumption, and remove from the statutes its callous exemption sanctifying child homicide in the name of faith.

Woop! Woop! That's my bullshit detector going off. Fetuses aren't children.

I think it should be treated the same way if somebody refused it based on homeopathy, or some 'quantum electro' healer.

It's no different.

Strange that his primary defense was to say "we don't want to criminalize everything". What those parents did was already criminal. Their ignorance is inexcusable (and that's assuming it was ignorance) as it is up to each parent to be sufficiently educated as to provide a minimum level of care for their children. Failure to get appropriate medical care for an obviously dangerously ill child clearly fails to meet that minimum.

Thank Darwin, any atheist family wanting to take them in they need to get away from this kind of stupidity

Unborn fetuses are parasites tolerated for the purpose of continuance of DNA.

Once they're born, they're still parasites.

Homeopathy, faith healing and all the similar should be banned. That's nothing more than a smart con.