I've written a good deal about the death of 11-year-old Madeline Kara Neumann.
My opinion on the case hasn't changed. I believe that her parents displayed a degree of neglect that is criminal. I believe their actions, their failure to seek medical help for their daughter, were immoral.
The trial of Kara's mother, Leilani Neumann, is revealing some very disturbing information.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Just hours after an 11-year-old girl died of untreated diabetes, her mother told a police detective that she never considered taking her tired, pale and skinny daughter to a doctor for what she believed was a spiritual attack.
..."It did scare me with her being cold," the mother told Everest Metro Detective Dennis Halkowski. "I just believed the Lord is gonna heal her. I never thought she was close to death. ... It was just like this all happened so suddenly. She just looked skinny all of a sudden."
...In the interview, Neumann told police she wasn't against doctors and medicine but Madeline hadn't seen a doctor since she was 3 and had never been sick. The family believes in "divine healing" by trusting the Lord, the mother said.
"I just felt that, you know, my faith was being tested. I never went through an experience like that before in my life and I just thought, man, this is the ultimate test," she said. "We just started praying and praying and praying over her.'
The interview played Wednesday occurred several hours after Neumann's daughter died. The mother told the detective that she believed her daughter would come back to life.
"It may be crazy to you but that's why I'm not crying and wailing right now," the mother said.
Neumann also said her husband thought briefly about getting their daughter to a doctor. "I said, 'No, the Lord's going to heal her.' I believed that God was going to just restore our daughter."
We have the freedom to worship. That's a precious right that should be protected.
However, when exercising that right means putting the life of a child at risk, we're in different territory. The freedom to practice one's faith must be exercised responsibly. There must be limits.
And when exercising one's religious beliefs is directly related to a death, there must be accountability.
The fact is Kara's death was preventable. Her parents didn't prevent it.
I trust in the Lord. I believe in the healing power of prayer. But if my 11-year-old child was so gravely ill that she couldn't talk or walk, I would be calling 911.
The family's religious beliefs are no excuse for failing to get Kara the medical care that would have saved her life.
This was a medical emergency involving Kara, not an "ultimate test" of Leilani's faith. That's incredibly self-centered of the mother to think her daughter's illness was God testing her. She was focusing on her own relationship with God. That was her priority rather than caring for her own child.
That's selfish.
The moment Leilani Neumann realized that her daughter was seriously ill, it wasn't time for her to stop praying.
To the contrary, it was time to intensify her prayers; and get her little girl to a doctor.
1 comment:
My Buddy Shoo recently hit on the topic: Original site"I think the parents are religious wackos (with all due respect to non-wacko religious people, and to non-religious wackos). Allowing their child to die when Western medicine is highly likely to cure him is a tragedy. But freedom also means the ability to make choices others deem wrong-headed or stupid. Perhaps his death will change the parents' religion. Perhaps this object lesson will keep many away from this religion and save many more lives. Perhaps their alternative methods will cure the boy anyway. Perhaps he will die from the chemo treatments, leaving the parents and everyone else in their religion angry and bitter at the government."
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