We've been talking a lot about Daniel Houser, the teen whose family refused to take him for chemotherapy, citing religious differences as their reason. In an eerily similar case, a mother in Wisconsin (which is where the Housers live) has been convicted of second-degree reckless homicide in the death of her daughter.
Leilani Neumann's eleven-year-old daughter, Madeline, died from untreated complications from diabetes. Rather than taking the child to a doctor, Leilani called friends and relatives and asked them to pray for Madeline, who eventually went into a coma and died. Prosecutors claimed that a the mother "recklessly killed her by ignoring obvious symptoms until it was too late," and referred to her as a "religious zealot" several times during the trial. Defense attorneys maintained that Leilani Neumann "didn't realize her daughter was so ill and did all she could do to help, in line with the family's belief in faith-healing."
While stories like this one, and the one of Daniel Houser, focus on familes who appear to be of the more extremist bent, it has to make one wonder what consequences folks might face if they make the wrong decision in their child's care. For example, what if a parent chooses to use Reiki or other holistic methods for their child, but the child doesn't get better? What about parents who choose, for religious reasons, not to vaccinate their kids and then the kids get sick?
The heartbreaking thing here is that this is one of those cases that is just tragic for all involved, and unfortunately, a child is dead and a family destroyed because of it.
Follow Pagan/Wiccan on Twitter or Join Me On Facebook!
Leilani Neumann's eleven-year-old daughter, Madeline, died from untreated complications from diabetes. Rather than taking the child to a doctor, Leilani called friends and relatives and asked them to pray for Madeline, who eventually went into a coma and died. Prosecutors claimed that a the mother "recklessly killed her by ignoring obvious symptoms until it was too late," and referred to her as a "religious zealot" several times during the trial. Defense attorneys maintained that Leilani Neumann "didn't realize her daughter was so ill and did all she could do to help, in line with the family's belief in faith-healing."
While stories like this one, and the one of Daniel Houser, focus on familes who appear to be of the more extremist bent, it has to make one wonder what consequences folks might face if they make the wrong decision in their child's care. For example, what if a parent chooses to use Reiki or other holistic methods for their child, but the child doesn't get better? What about parents who choose, for religious reasons, not to vaccinate their kids and then the kids get sick?
The heartbreaking thing here is that this is one of those cases that is just tragic for all involved, and unfortunately, a child is dead and a family destroyed because of it.
Follow Pagan/Wiccan on Twitter or Join Me On Facebook!
It is a slippery slope. It can be hard to come up with consistent rules to be followed when it comes to medical treatment for children and the rights of the parents in the matter. You want to be able to give parents rights for their children and yet you also want whats best for the child. For me, “faith-healing” is complete nonsense and I’d shake my head at a person suggesting it, but I also don’t want to step on a person’s religious beliefs. Very slippery.
I agree that, for me, faith healing (not holistic) is more than a bit silly.
That being said:
Last year I woke up in the dead of night to witness my boyfriend ( a type 1 diabetic) having a diabetic seizure. It was one of the scariest and most horrifing things I have ever expeirenced. I am a confirmed pagan, with little to no religious (much less christian) background or upbringing. But watching my boyfriend go through that I was perfectly willing to believe in demons and possesion. I can more than understand how people with a christian bent can feel that prayer is called for. But perhaps you should call the pastor after you call 9-11.
How sad that the girl died. But let’s not forget that kids die in hopitals too. I’m sure there are many parents who have sought holistic healing for their kids and have had good results. With the medical field (in league with pharmaceutical companies) being so quick to medicate our kids these days, it can be difficult to know where to turn. Who has the best interest of any child in mind? The parents do. Let them do as they please and if there is concern, allow a child advocate to work WITH the family to insure ALL of us that our rights as parents are protected. The problem is finding an unbiased and well educated advocate.
She can’t take her daughter to the hospital and then pray for her?
Hey, Patti, the link you provided doesn’t actually show any of the coverage the Chicago Tribune posted up…you still need to do a search for it on their site. On to the story at hand…
This story is from my area, from Weston, a village that is part of the greater Wausau area, only 30 miles from my town. We’ve all been following the story with great interest since the girl’s death a year ago, and still await a verdict on her father, whose trial is in July. He faces the same charges. The worst part for the girl is that her aunt, who was the one who finally got police involved, was calling from California because she was concerned over the girl’s health after researching some of the symptoms the family said the girl had using the Internet, and finding that these were symptoms often experienced by people with untreated diabetes. She called the police several times, and finally had to lie to them to get them to check on the girl. It was only after the police showed up and found the girl not breathing that anyone actually called an ambulance, and by then it was too late. Even then, the mother stated that she never actually thought her daughter was dead, and that she was just going to wake up, that God would bring her back to life. I really worry about the rest of the family if that is the mother’s view on healthcare…I wonder how long it would have taken before the mother actually would have called the police?
I understand that as a parent, there is a right to refuse some treatments in favor of less invasive healing (holistic, prayer, acupuncture, etc.) However, at some point, someone has to stand up for the children in these cases; at what point does a parent’s right supercede the child’s? Not easy questions to answer, but I think this is one case where someone should have been looking out for Madeline, and should have forced these parents to care for their child, since she couldn’t care for herself.
Lisa – thanks for the heads up, the Chicago Trib link went vanishing. I’ve replaced it with one from another newspaper covering the guilty verdict.
Lisa brings up a good point. From her description, it sounds like the mother was emotionally incapable of dealing with her daughter’s illness. This mother was looking to her faith to compensate, but that has proven to be an unhealthy solution in this case. Where is the line between a family’s religious beliefs and a parent’s (debilitating) emotional immaturity? And this in turn raises some uncomfortable questions about the place of religion in life… And I’m hardly an atheist.
My 6 year old daughter has type 1 diabetes, and was diagnosed 4 months ago. She was close to going into a diabetic coma only because we didn’t know the early warning signs. I took her to the ER when she woke up one morning vomiting and having difficulties breathing. She was in DKA at that point, but fortunately we caught it just in time and she was stabilized. She ended up spending 5 days at a nearby children’s hospital.
Thankfully, she is fine now and is now insulin-dependent. When someone has type 1 diabetes, their pancreas is incapable of producing insulin which regulates the sugar in your blood, which in turn will cause your blood sugar to rise if not brought under control. Insulin must be administered at mealtimes based on total carbs eaten.
This little girl did not need to die; I can’t say that someone’s religious views are invalid but she should have gotten medical care. It is relatively easy and not invasive to treat type 1 diabetes. You monitor your blood sugar, and inject insulin that your body would have produced anyway had your pancreas been functioning normally.
Scientist studying stem cell research are looking for ways to regrow pancreas and eventually perform transplants to cure diabetes. That would be wonderful, I think.