Posting is going to slow down now as Spring Break came to an end this Monday and school has resumed. Unfortunately, these last two months are shaping up to be absolutely hellish so that likely won’t change until mid May.
Of course, the real news of the day is this disgusting story. An 11 year old girl (pictured above, click for source) from Weston, Wisconsin, just an hour north of my hometown, is dead after her parents refused to seek medical treatment for a dangerous, but treatable condition called diabetic ketoacidosis, preferring instead to pray for her return to good health.
Diabetic ketoacidosis essentially results from untreated diabetes, and just from skimming the wikipedia article…it doesn’t sound pretty. Basically, your body goes into starvation and starts producing keytones in overdrive to supply itself with energy. Eventually it reaches the point where people can smell keytones on your breath, often said to be a fruity smell or similar to that of paint thinner, and your blood pH sinks from its usual range of 7.35-7.45 to around 7. This causes many of the proteins in the blood stream to denature, and this is bad news. Severe organ damage and eventually death follow. There are definitely worse ways to die, but I certainly wouldn’t want to go out like this poor girl did.
While this whole ordeal is extremely repulsive in it’s entirety, there are a few lines that I have trouble wrapping my mind around.
The girl’s parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, attributed the death to “apparently they didn’t have enough faith,” the police chief said. They believed the key to healing “was it was better to keep praying. Call more people to help pray,” he said.
What, is there a faith meter god uses to determine who has merit? Is it like a little needle and a dial, like a speedometer, and they just didn’t get quite to the “cure diabetes” notch on the meter? Don’t you think someone who trusted god to cure something as serious as diabetes has more faith than any god should ever need? And then there’s this:
The girl has three siblings, ranging in age from 13 to 16, the police chief said. “They are still in the home,” he said. “There is no reason to remove them. There is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see.”
What!? In case you didn’t notice, an 11 year old girl is dead do to her parents neglect! What would it take for it to be considered abuse? As many have pointed out, withholding food from a child for probably two consecutive meals, or certainly a whole day, as a punishment would be considered abuse. This girl was prevented from receiving medical attention for thirty days, and then at the end of it, she lost her life! I’d be hard pressed to come up with a way that those three remaining children could be in more danger than they are now. I don’t doubt that these parents honestly believe what they claim to, but what if another gets sick? And what if she dies? Will it be abuse then? What about a third child? When will we call it abuse?
This is religion at its worst. And that is saying something. Don’t get me wrong, the constant killings in the name of this god or that god are certainly terrible, and unquestionably more voluminous than deaths of this variety, but an absolutely senseless and easily preventable death such as this is absolutely tragic. This is the truly evil side to religion. It causes people to commit acts with good intentions that instead lead directly to the deaths of those they meant to protect.
One commenter on the richarddawkins.net repost of this article said he believed these parents deserve to die. I’ve already stated that I believe these people sincerely believe what they say they do, and a second commenter agreed with me, pointing out that death was not a fair punishment for ignorance, delusion and stupidity. A third though, hit the nail on the head, noting that ignorance, delusion and stupidity are punished by death…just not that of the ignorant, delusional and stupid.
Updated @ 2008 March 28 23:49 GMT: Fortunately, I just heard on WISC TV (a Madison ABC affiliate) that social services and the parents have agreed that all three of the older children should be removed from the house, for the benefit of all involved.
