Separate Trials for Prayer Death Parents

[tekisui]

Source: AP

WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) -- A judge has set separate trials for parents accused of reckless homicide for praying instead of taking their 11-year-old daughter to a doctor as she died of undiagnosed diabetes.

Marathon County Circuit Judge Vincent Howard on Monday set Leilani Neumann's trial to begin May 14 and her husband Dale's for July 23.

Jay Kronenwetter, an attorney for the parents, says both trials are expected to take at least a week.

The parents are charged with second-degree reckless homicide in the Easter death of their daughter, Madeline, at their home in Weston.

Prosecutors say the girl was too weak to speak, eat, drink or walk and the parents had a legal duty to seek medical care instead of just praying for her.

The maximum punishment for the charge is 25 years in prison.

http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/36579189.html

[DFW]

1. As the father of two daughters, this makes me cringe

If I had ordered a witch doctor instead of an ENT specialist when they got severe
tonsil infections, my girls would have choked to death in agony as little girls.
All they needed was antibiotics. The cops would have arrested me for putting my faith
in Gitchimanitou instead of having them take pills for a week. Prayer is not a substitute
for medicine. People don't go to a doctor's office for weekly sermons or go to confession
or seek advice from their Rabbi or hear an immam, or whatever. Why some talk themselves
into thinking it is perfectly logical to seek medical advice and treatment in a bible is
beyond me.

[JNelson6563]

2. I wonder if their faith in prayer

would be as strong if it were one of them in the situation their daughter was in. I doubt it.

Julie