What is your opinion on "medical neglect" of children by their parents?

Religious beliefs are wrong when a human life is at stake. No faith should require you to sit back and watch your child die.

I think it’s negligent to deny your child medical treatment by virtue of religious beliefs.
We don’t know if there’s a god that will curse disease.

We absolutely know that medical science is effective.
Maybe chemotherapy isn’t 100% effective but it is more effective than prayer.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic One thing I feel needs to be said. If somebody prays to God to cure them they won’t get it.

@spresto I remember someone once saying that god helps those who help themselves.

Personally, I think it’s just as wrong as a minor (within a reasonable age) being forced to undergo treatments and surgeries when they do not want to. Does anybody prosecute the parents in these cases? Who gets to decide what is in someone’s best interest? Either religion and government are separate or they are not, we cannot have it both ways.

@spresto Very true. lol.

@tinyfaery Well the next time your child…if you would have had a child was going to die and a simple surgery would save them and they say no, its just how it is. Would you say your right I respect you to much to let you live?

@tinyfaery

Well, it is a little different when the person in question refuses the treatment themselves. But I suppose I was thinking of young children who may not properly understand what is going on regarding the treatment—young children who are essentially controlled by their parents. Do the parents have the right to let their child (in some case) die? I mean, neglect is illegal. Why should neglect become legal if religion is backing this neglect? To me, neglect is neglect. Doesn’t matter the reasons for it.

If I had a 16 year old child who had a long battle with cancer (years) and he/she decided that they no longer wanted to fight, I would let him/her die. Why would I be selfish when the well- being of my child is at stake. And that is what it is, selfishness.

@tinyfaery Okay, dump that argument. I am not talking about cancer. Yes, cancer is a horrible thing no human should have to suffer. I am talking about something like an Appendicitis. It is a minor surgery for most, and a natural occurance for an appendix to rupture. If your 16 said, no let me die its way of such things you would think they were screwed in the head…or would you?

@TROLL Hmmm…I am a little crazy. lol.

Oh moderators. He is just trying to defeat the oppression. Leave him alone. lol.

This was just on one of those cop shows a couple days ago. A mother who chose not to have her toddler vaccinated took him to the park. A 10 month old baby (too young to immunize) who was also at the park caught measels from him and died. I know it’s just a TV show but it really made me think. People shouldn’t have the right to put others health at risk due to religious beliefs.

@elijah They should’nt be forced to take or have there children take medication they don’t want either. Something are wrong no matter how you look at it.

@elijah SVU I saw that too.

@tinyfaery : You wouldn’t be doing it in the name of your religion, and neither would your child. These would be your and your child’s personal wishes, uninfluenced by religion.

My SO’s old boss was a Christian Scientist. Their kid cut his leg really badly, and the husband came home to find her and all of her CS friends gathered around the kid (who was passed out in a pool of blood) praying and praying and praying.

He picked the kid up and took him to the hospital, which saved his life. His wife divorced him for that action.

“Faith” over reason exemplified.

@Knotmyday I disagree. There prayers did get answered. The child recovered because God acted through the father who returned home in time to save his child. Though those people were fools and completely stupid, reason over faith exemplified.

I guess the fluther never got that memo. God works through man. Not by miracles, though he could.

@spresto I agree their prayers were answered through the dads actions however they were not enlightened enough to see this. I would find it hard to accept a parents wishes if they did not want their child to have a minor because of religious reasons, especially if it meant the childs life would be made easier through surgery. Powers that be wouldn’t allow that same parent to keep their childs arm tied behind their back or live with a scarf over ther eyes (these would hinderthe childs life) as would consistantly having ear ache, toothache etc..

@spresto and don’t forget god allowed the Surgeons Great Grandfather to be born which inturn allowed his Father to be born and so on and so forth,oh and the ambulance driver and the guy who stopped at the traffic lights to let the ambulance get a free run.
Also dont forget the guy who made the wheeled stretcher that the ambulance guys used to transport the kid to the ambulance and down the path that the builder put down ect ect call me a synic but this God stuff is so far fetched.

@elijah That episode was so disturbing, it made me sick. I can’t believe that a mother would be charged with murder of a child she never even met. I don’t believe it was her fault at all.

I think religion shouldn’t interfere with the medical care anyone receives, it just doesn’t make sense to me. But, I also don’t like the courts setting a precedent in being able to interfere in anyone’s medical care.

If my son were old enough and had been fighting cancer and told me it was his time, it would be hard, but I wouldn’t force him to continue treatments…
For this case in particular, it seems the parents did one treatment, and stopped for religious reasons, and are now taking a natural approach. I think that is very stupid of them. The boy doesn’t even know how sick he is, so he can’t make the decision for himself.

@TROLL Perhaps. lol.

@spresto

Then in Elijah’s case, they shouldn’t be out where they can infect other people. You have the freedom to swing your fist all you want, but it ends the moment you hit someone’s nose. Freedom only goes so far until you infringe upon other peoples’ freedom.

You are free to practice your religious beliefs however you see fit until it harms another human being. Medical neglect harms another human being, and thus religious freedom does not apply.

Overall, I believe we must learn to respect different cultures and judge them by their own standards, not ours. That’s a general statement though, and does not always apply.

As a parent (with a daughter that had to be operated upon right after she was born), I did not agree with my wife trying to “remove the curse” when our daughter had a fever, or not allowing me to wash her clothes on a full moon, or let them out to dry for fear of “evil spirits”. All that’s crap. But most of it is not dangerous. It is however dangerous that she did not take her to the doctor for her annual check-up and neither did she allow me to do so (but it had nothing to do with religion or customs). Or that she managed to give our child an ear infection, and the next day took her to a TV show instead of the doctor. But that’s my opinion as a father then.

When I was in jr. high, I knew a girl whose younger brother died of pnuemonia that went untreated. They didn’t seek medical help because of religious beliefs. That, IMO, is just unthinkable. As a parent, how do you live with that? I’m racked with guilt if one of my kids gets a cavity. Anyway, in the case of easily treatable medical conditions, I think the parents should totally be held accountable. Prosecute them for neglect—religious beliefs shouldn’t protect people in that situation. At least get the kid to adulthood and let him/her decide from then on how to handle medical problems. While the parents are in jail they can pray all they want.

The case referenced by this article is such a gray area for me though. Yes, the kid has cancer. Yes, he wants to try natural remedies. He’s 13, which means if he killed someone he could possibly be tried as an adult. Why can’t he also decide as an adult how to handle his own medical care? I didn’t read the above article, but another article I read (which was on my Comcast home page but has now disappeared) said that the parents would take the boy back to the hospital if his condition worsened. I’m not a doctor and have no idea how big of a risk that is. It’s certainly not something I’d risk with my own kids.

Abraham was willing to kill Isaac. And religion negatively effects many people every day.

In my opinion, withholding medical treatment (particularly life-saving treatment) from a child for any reason is wrong. A parent’s very first duty to a child is to keep that child alive. *

@tinyfaery and @MissAusten

A child is not able to give informed consent (in the legal sense) to anything. That includes for or against medical treatment. Even if a 13 year old says he doesn’t want treatment, he should get it. To put this into perspective, are we okay with a 13 year old deciding to have sex with a 40 year old? No, right? So why would we be okay with a decision that will likely end their life? How can we expect one so young to make such an important decision, let alone make a decision contrary to their parent’s wishes?

* Now, if it’s a futile attempt to extend a life filled with constant pain and misery for a few months, that’s a different situation entirely. I would say that’s selfish.

@augustlan in my state a kid can get medical care without their parents starting at age 14 & give legal informed consent, just a point of information

@RedPowerLady Hmm, I didn’t know that. That puts a new spin on things… thanks for the info.

@augustlan I think it was put into place for birth control type issues, mostly it is discussed around “kids” going to planned parenthood

@RedPowerLady Makes sense.

Tinyfaery: going way back up and looking at your earlier post about a 16 year old with cancer wanting to stop fighting—i don’t think any social services agency would charge the parents with medical neglect (to answer the question directly, that’s who would be bringing up charges of medical neglect) and that’s not what the charge medical neglect is intended for (i work in this field so i am 100 percent positive). medical neglect is usually used for parents who don’t take their child to doctor for years at a time, or when the kids have teeth rotting out of their mouth and the parents don’t take them to the dentist. i think in the case of a 16 yr old with cancer who wants to die, nobody would deny his struggle and the fact that the 16 year old obviously did have plenty of medical treatment.

Informed consent doesn’t mean much at all. How aware can anyone really be about medical procudures, unless one is a doctor in that specified field. And this just goes back to the “why I don’t want kids” thread. Just because you birth a child, or adopt one even, does not give you ownership over an individual human life. Most parents make decisions for their kids based on how they feel, what they want, not what is truly best of another person, who just happens to be their child. Ownership? Blech.

@Jack79 you’re not still with that wife are you? cause it sounds like a mess

Not only am I not with her, she’s facing several years in prison. I can not even begin to describe the crimes she and her family perpetrated. But the worst bit is how the law didn’t work on time. My daughter has suffered a lot as a result, and still does. And I’ve dedicated my life in getting her well and punishing those responsible.

@augustlan, I actually agree with you. Like I said, it isn’t something I would risk with my own kids. I just think it’s interesting that if this kid were to go into his school and kill someone, there’d be talk about trying him as an adult. Now, he wants to pursue his own medical care, and the authorities are saying he isn’t fit to make that decision. Not sure if I’m making sense because I’ve had a martini. Or two.

Update

My assumption, having not read the previous, was that it was a kid that had extensive treatment and decided to stop fighting the cancer and just die. i see the kid had no treatment, and i think the judge’s intervention is warranted, in this case. the kid is young and it seems like the parents did nothing except the native american stuff. I also thought the kid was 16, as written by another poster, and i see now he’s younger than that.