Parents choose prayer over medical help

[skb]

Parents of a 15 year old Type 1 boy who died, chose prayer over medical intervention. Sad but true.

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/diabetic-15-year-old-weighing-37-pounds-dies-after-parents-choose-prayer-over-insulin/

[Shanny]

I can't describe how furiously angry this kind of crap makes me!

[rocky]

thats foolish, really make me fume as well.

[Sweety]

This is really sick. What kind of parents are these ? Hope they are behind bars.

[bigskygal]

That is just appalling! That poor child should never have been returned to his parents.

[starsign]

  It's a shame they call themselves parents. Mentally sick.

[Kelly]

I agree, this really makes me angry that someone was not watching out for this young boy!!

[Tamagno]

I believe in a sovereign God as well as in the power of prayer.

However, in our world, He has also given us medicine through which we often receive healing. This case is terribly sad and wrong headed, of course.

While not relevant to this beknighted family, note the number of times we've all complained of terrible medical care! We know all too well that medical protocols can themselves be wrong and even deadly.

Sadly for this poor boy, even a government-sponsored insulin regimen would have saved his life.

My recent forays into the worlds of Medicare and legislation governing it's formularies and rules make me very doubtful of the advisability of putting anyone's health in the hands of legislators.

This family's terrible choice - as well as presumably that of their pastor and church - makes us scream for further intervention, but I'm left wondering to whom exactly we ought entrust such decisions.

[Grammabear]

If they have other children, who is looking out for them?  The parents should not have any more children that can grow up to be neglected.

[Rhiannon]

How heartbreaking and how wrong.  If the parents do not want to choose medical care for their own selves, that is one thing.  They are adults and therefore ought to be allowed to let themselves die and/or suffer quite a bit in the absence of proper medical care.  But it should be illegal to do the same to innocent children who have no recourse.

This is a very grey area.  On the one hand, I think that if there is a well-established medical protocol that is known to help with various diseases (in this case, Type 1 diabetes), available and made affordable for those who need it - then it should be required of parents to avail themselves of that treatment for their child.

On the other hand, parents should not be forced to put their child through painful, experimental, or extremely expensive medical treatments (assuming they cannot afford the cost). 

I think if you have religious beliefs that require you to forego scientifically proven medical care and instead only allow prayer -- then you should not have children.  Subject yourself if you will, but don't impose that on children who never had a chance to reach the age where they could make their own decisions in that regard.