Imagine a child asking you for a banana and you give it. Harmless, yes? Until, that is, the child begins choking on a bite. What do you do? The Heimlich maneuver? Call an ambulance? Do nothing? While the last option seems barbaric, that's exactly what some parents do when their child's life is in danger. And the law lets them do it.

Faith healing is a practice common in most cultures and persists even in the light (or in spite) of current medical knowledge and procedures. While there are many types of faith healing, the most common mean is through basic prayer.

While most use prayer in addition to medical treatment, there is a small segment of the population that uses prayer as the sole means of healing ails. Not surprisingly, these groups are religious in nature.

Not all religious groups reject all medical treatments, however. Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, refuse blood transfusion in accordance with their reading of certain Bible passages.^{1 2} Also, Christian Scientists (followers of the Church of Christ, Scientist) allow for the setting of broken bones but all other medical treatments are discouraged with "scientific prayer" in its place.^{3 4} However, there are many groups besides Christian Scientists that encourage or require the refusal of medical care, including the followers of the Children of the First Born, End Time Ministries, Faith Assembly, Christ Church (Oregon), Faith Tabernacle, Bible Readers Fellowship (FL) and many more.⁵

Living in a country where our medical practices are some of the best in the world, one may say that those who refuse life-saving medical care are ignorant or stupid. However, we also live in a country founded on religious freedom and we allow one to refuse medical care whether his/her religion requires it or not.

On the flip side of these freedoms, though, comes a dark reality. While refusal of medical care is an option for an adult, what about a child? Can a child make that decision? The answer is no, and for good reason. Aside from the law, most children under the age of eighteen are not sophisticated enough to make such decisions on their own and their parents or guardians either facilitate the choice-making with the children or make the decision for them. However, to refuse a child medical care when it could greatly benefit the child's welfare (and especially in saving the life of a child) is unlawful neglect. So, if the law does not allow a child or its parents/guardians to refuse the child medical care, how can a child ever go without it when it can be helped? Unfortunately, most states exempt parents/guardians from medical neglect if the decision is based on their religious beliefs.

In 1998, the medical journal Pediatrics published a study of 172 cases of children who died when faith healing alone was used to treat an ailment.⁶ Of those, if proper medical care were provided, 81.2% of the children would have had a >90% survival rate and 10.5% would have had a survival rate of >50%. Only three children (1.7%) would not have benefited in any case.

Read the above paragraph again.

The study describes many of the cases where child deaths could have been prevented:

• The parents of an adolescent girl pray while a tumor slowly grows on her leg up to a 41" diameter over seven months.

• An ambulance is summoned for a newborn with trouble breathing at the behest of a concerned relative. As the EMTs arrive, a "church elder" sends them on their way claiming that prayer has saved the day. Three hours later, the baby is dead and the vitamin K injection that would have saved it sits in the ambulance.

• A teenager runs away from home when her parents refuse to go to a doctor about her fainting spells. The cops bring her home to her loving parents. A few days pass and her appendix ruptures.

• A toddler slowly chokes to death on a piece of banana as his mother anxiously calls other church members to pray for her son. An hour later, he finally dies with the piece of banana still in his throat.

These terrible tragedies happen all the time. Only a month ago, a complication arose during a Delta, CO, birth:

When Montrose County sheriff's deputies arrived at the scene, they found Ruth Berger-Belebbas with the baby still stuck in her birth canal two days after the baby had died during birth. The baby had been turned the wrong way in the womb - a common birthing problem that can be rectified by rotating the baby or removing the baby by Caesarean section. The birth was attended by midwives who also belong to the First Born church. […] A Grand Junction church member with some medical training reportedly was able to remove the baby in the third day after it died.⁷

Human sacrifice is outlawed in our nation…or is it? These children are forced into martyrdom with their lives by their parents/guardians. They are guilty of neglect - no, proactive neglect - and religious murder.

If we cannot justify the murder of adults for religious reasons, then how can we sit aside while innocent children do? While it is perfectly within the rights of an adult to refuse medical care for themselves, do we not have a responsibility to protect the lives of this macabre form of child abuse? I think we do.

This is not a matter of religion vs. science, it is life vs. death. Praying is not a bad thing in and of itself and I encourage those who practice prayer to pray for their sick kids as well as send them to the doctor.

While many see the story of how Abraham almost sacrificed his son as a beautiful story of faith, I see it as a horrific story of attempted murder. Do not sacrifice your children to any gods for any reason. Why take the chance that you may be wrong? And why would a loving being want you to do away with your pride and joy just to prove your faith?

Sacrifice your children and you sacrifice yourself.

***

Edward, 24, is a senior in Mathematics Education at the University of Georgia. He is currently working on a new column, Doubting Thomas, and a short story, "The Man Who Heard Music." His "Thoughts on Deconversion from Religion" is currently on hold but plans to post a complete, revised version once finished. For an index of articles and a comprehensive list of links and further readings, see http://www.themestream.com/articles/178268.html.

For info on how you can help end children's deaths, go to the home page of CHILD, Inc.

Notes

1 - Watchtower: Official Web Site of Jehovah's Witnesses (2000). "What Do They Believe?" http://www.watchtower.org/library/br78/what_they_believe.htm. Back

2 - Genesis 9:3-4; Leviticus 17:14; Acts 15:28-29. Back

3 - Robinson, B.A. (2000). "Religious groups that reject medical treatment in favor of prayer." Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance (website). http://www.religioustolerance.org/medical.htm Back

4 - The official home page of The Church of Christ, Scientist (2000). "How do you go about healing the sick?" http://www.tfccs.com/GV/QANDA/CSHQ3.html Back

5 - See note 3. Back

6 - Asser, S. M. & Swan, R. (1998) "Child Fatalities From Religion-motivated Medical Neglect." Pediatrics. 101:4. Pages 625-629. Back

7 - Lofholm, N. "3^rd baby dies after refusal of care." Denver Post 11 Aug. 2000. http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0811c.htm Back

The publishing was authorized by the author of the original essay.

The original essay is available at http://www.themestream.com/gspd_browse/author/view_author_info.gsp?auth_id=76154

Translations to spanish and grammar corrections on the translation to portuguese are welcome.