The Atheist Blogger

I honestly didn’t want to cover this story, not because so many others had already done so, but because it literally chilled me to the bone, and I find myself sickened whenever I read it. However, Evan over at the Debunking Christianity blog wrote an investigative story on the subject, which I couldn’t ignore.

For those who are unaware of the story (which is probably a minority), I will give a brief description. 11 year old Madeline Kara Neumann (pictured above) died from diabetic ketoacidosis, a perfectly treatable condition, and one which the majority of people do not die from. I’d like to say that her illness was the primary cause of death, but sadly that is not the case. Madeline Neumann was murdered by her parents, who were so ignorant of the situation around them, they decided that the power of prayer, not medicine would save their daughter.

Madeline saw a doctor at age 3, and would not see another until her body was examined at the local hospital, a good few hours after she died. She had been off her medication for most of her life, but when her illness became too great, she fell unconscious and died. All the while her murderers refused to take her to hopsital, and in fact a 911 call that eventually alerted the hospital came from a relation outside the immediate family.

A ministry that were close to the family recently wrote this press release. In it, the spokesperson says:

We are not commanded in scripture to send people to the doctor but to meet their needs through prayer and faith.  As anyone here in the ministry will tell you, we are not against doctors for those who have their faith there and never condemn or restrict them in any way.  But we know that the best one to trust in for healing is Jesus Christ.

This level of ignorance and stupidity cannot continue. In an increasingly secular nation like the United Kingdom, such an excuse would have been rejected by every single court, and the parents would currently be facing a long prison sentence for murder through negligence. However what we find in the USA, is the other three children being returned to the parents as if nothing had happened. A prosecution is being set up by the police, but Wisconsin law dictates parents cannot be charged if they relied on prayer. Essentially, in the terms of Wisconsin courts, God failed, not the parents. One can only hope that they are charged with abuse or neglect relating to their failure to provide adequent medical attention to their child.

What further astounds me in the press release is this:

The next thing I heard from them was that they were being investigated, which is sad since authorities don’t investigate the people who put their trust in doctors whose family members die by the hundreds of thousands from medical mistakes every year, according the AMA’s own admission.  We know that the doctors do the best they can with what they have and we do not condemn them.  We would like the same consideration.

Yes, people die from medical mistakes, and perhaps one of those mistakes would have killed Madeline if she had seen a doctor, but that is a very unlikely outcome. The doctors do the best they can, but this group, and these parents did not. They sat and prayed to a non existant God in hope of a miracle (which would be the first of it’s kind I’d like to point out). They claim they didn’t have enough faith, but I’d like to propose they didn’t have enough brains to realise their delusion and help their daughter.

On the good side of this story (if indeed we can view any of it as good), this entire event has become very public, not just in the blogging community, but in international news as well. One can only hope that more parents get this message, and send their children to doctors instead of using prayer.

Possibly Related Posts:

• What The Bible Really Teaches About Hell
• So, “Atheist Central” Wants To Know About Atheism?
• Zombie Jesus
• Blown Wide Open - Praying For The Sick Part 2
• Scale Of Belief, Knowledge, & Certainty