Dale and Shannon Hickman’s son David was premature baby that was born at home. He developed breathing problems due to his immature lungs. Instead of calling 911 the Hickmans relied totally on prayer. Hickman anointed his son and the next day his son died. The Hickmans are members of a church called Followers of Christ, a faith healing church that believes fate is solely in the hands of God. They were convicted Thursday of second-degree manslaughter in the 2009 death of their son. Doctors testified that the child had a 99% chance of recovery had he been brought to the hosptial for treatment. My question is are the parents guilty of a crime or were they exercising their right to practice their religion freely? They sincerely believed in the power of prayer so is it fair to put them in jail? Tell me what you think.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/09/oregon-couple-convicted-in-sons-faith-healing-death.html
It’s a double-edged sword. I believe that people have the right to treat their bodies, whether for religious reasons or not, any way they choose. However, this baby is not able to make that choice so if the parents are doing something that is generally agreed to be physically harmful, society has the right to step in and help it.
If this child was neglected in any other way, the parents would be convicted but because they say their baby died because “God willed it”, we are questioning our own common sense.
When I approach this question in the context of what exercising freedom of religion means relative to the exercise of any other freedom we are guaranteed, it helps me remove much of the emotion from the question. We often hear the adage that your freedom to swing your fist stops at the point at which it approaches my nose.
Applying that same line of reasoning to this case would dictate that the freedom of this couple to exercise the beliefs of their faith ended at the point at which the protection of the life and health of their baby was infringed upon. To make the decision to eschew medical care to protect their own lives and health in lieu of the exercising of their faith for healing should not be abridged. But they should be legally obligated to defer to medical care for those who are dependent upon them for their health and well being.
Oregon couple relied on faith and son died…should they be jailed?
If the violated a penal statute, YES.
What if a Maya or Aztec descendant offered a child as a human sacrifice ?
Very interesting comparision.