Wisconsin Girl Killed By Religious Parents

[Doug]

Makes me sad. And angry.

WESTON, Wis. (AP) - The mother of an 11-year-old rural Weston girl who died of untreated diabetes says she didn't know her daughter was terminally ill as she prayed for her to get better instead of taking her to the doctor.

Madeline Neumann died Sunday from an undiagnosed and treatable form of diabetes.

...She also says she's not concerned about a police investigation, because she and her husband believe their lives are in God's hands and they did nothing criminal, only tried to do the best they could for their daughter.

Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin says an autopsy showed the girl died from a type of diabetes that left her with too little insulin in her body. He says she had probably been ill for about 30 days.

But Leilani Neumann says her daughter was in good health until recently. The girl attended public school last fall but has been home-schooled this semester.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks to homeschooling - the "village" it takes to raise a child doesn't get a chance to help. Of course, with education and healthcare in the state they are currently in, it might have happened anyway. When I was a kid, there was a nurse in every school to deal with minor "triage" type things and catch stuff that needed further care - and in elementary, the teachers helped out by doing height/weight charts on all their students for the nurse. When my mom was in school, not only was the system I had in place, but a school doctor came around about once a week, checked on everything the nurse had and checked out "iffys" she wasn't sure needed further help (and, in Momma's Indiana school, before she moved to iodine-rich Houston, the doctor handed out iodine pills to all the students to prevent goiter). I guess that's too "socialist" for Americans these days - or they don't think their kids are worth the tax dollars.

[RobertMadewell]

Ketoacidosis (spelling?) is not an easy way to die. The poor girl was in agony for at least 3 weeks before she died. I know that if I had a child who was suffering like that for just a day, I would have her in the ER. Keep in mind that because of the length of time that it takes for ketoacidosis to get to the fatal point, the parents had plenty of time to get the child to a doctor. My wife said that a $2 shot would have saved her life. Not too sure about the price, but it's insignificant compared to losing a daughter.

As bad as I might say that my indoctrination was (when I was a kid), I could not imagine, my parents NOT taking me to a doctor if I was not getting better. Of course they would have tried praying, anointing, and laying on hands first (we believed all of that except for glosslalia), but if I didn't get better I am certain that I would have been taken to the hospital.

We tend to want to blame this on religion, but I don't think that we can fully. I blame ignorance for it mostly. Of course, their ignorance was encouraged by their religion. So, maybe we can blame religion. I don't know.

[Savonarola]

We tend to want to blame this on religion, but I don't think that we can fully. I blame ignorance for it mostly. Of course, their ignorance was encouraged by their religion. So, maybe we can blame religion. I don't know.

If a religion promotes such ignorance (and passiveness) by preaching that our knowledge and remedial actions are insignificant in the "big picture" of "God's plan," then that religion sure as hell deserves a very large share of the blame for the outcome.

[RobertMadewell]

Maybe, your right. However, they weren't afiliated with any denomination, so we actually don't have a particular brand of Xianity to blame. It would be nice to be able to point to a particular church and say, "It's your fault!", but there isn't one in this case. Though, I did read somewhere that a local (to them) church took up the cause to defend them.

[Savonarola]

Maybe, your right. However, they weren't afiliated with any denomination, so we actually don't have a particular brand of Xianity to blame. It would be nice to be able to point to a particular church and say, "It's your fault!", but there isn't one in this case. Though, I did read somewhere that a local (to them) church took up the cause to defend them.

It doesn't matter to me if they'd made up their own religion and were the only followers of that religion on the face of the planet. Any such dangerous promotion of ignorance should be condemned and dispelled.

[RobertMadewell]

James Randi has a great commentary on this story here. As always, he says it like it is.

Also, The Skeptics Guide 5x5 has a short podcast about a different but simialar story here. Listen to podcast #12. Well, They're all good. Listen to them all. (if ya want to)

[Phalcon]

And even if 'god' had healed her, the question then arises why the 'miracle' could not have been, as a reward for faith, that she never got sick in the first place.

Otherwise, we are faced with the notion that 'god' allows sickness and 'accidents' and 'evil' in order to get people to believe and worship.

It's just the old philosophical problem of evil in the world, and how to reconcile that with an all powerful, all good 'god'...

[RobertMadewell]

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. James: 5:14-15

Many churches today preach these 2 verses. The last phrase that I underlined hints that illness is caused by sin. Many Americans believe that if you are sick then it must be because you did something wrong, or that God is conducting a test of some sorts. James 4:3 says that if your prayer is unanswered then it's your fault because you asked it wrong, or maybe you didn't have enough faith.

What could an 11 year old girl do that would make God punish her with type 1 diabetes? When she was passed out and barely breathing was her faith strong enough? Maybe her parents were somehow not asking God the right way for their daughter to be healed. Did they leave out an amen?

The more I think about this story, the madder I get.