Praying to Death

It has happened again. Some religious zealot has prayed for healing for their child and the child promptly slipped into a diabetic coma and died. Well, maybe their child died because God wanted to teach them that just praying for their little one to get better isn’t what he wants you to do. Parents, who do this, I feel, should be charged with child abuse at the very least.
Although that is where I truly do feel on this subject as a parent, I am also a firm believer in the First Amendment and the fact that it covers the freedom to practice whatever religion you choose to follow. So, where do we as a society draw the line? Is following your religion to someone else’s death, especially a child’s, really something that the state should decide? Thirty states have laws that exempt parents from prosecution should their child die from faith healing practices, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In Oregon, the exemption law has only been revised, eliminating the spiritual healing exemption in some manslaughter and criminal mistreatment cases. Currently there are two cases pending against parents belonging to the Followers of Christ Church. Jeffrey Dean Beagley and his wife, Marci Rae Beagley are being charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of their 16 year old son, Neil. He died from complications of a urinary tract blockage. A simple procedure could have saved his life, yet his parents would not take him to see a doctor.
However, not everyone whose parents follow faith healing practices dies. Beth Young has hip dysplasia, an ailment that could have easily been corrected when she was an infant, but her parents chose not to take her to a doctor. Her hip dysplasia was not diagnosed until her mid twenties when she talked to a doctor about her difficulty with walking and climbing stairs. She found out that her hip joints were deteriorating and it was too late for a surgical fix for her. Beth now has to live with the fact that she was cheated out of a normal life because of her parent’s religious beliefs.
This is an argument that can not be easily ended as it is an issue of the separation of church and state. Is it ethical for the government to come in and tell people what their religious beliefs ought to be? On the other hand, is it ethical for a parent to stand by idly while their child suffers, then dies if they are lucky. Should the government be allowed to prosecute the parents that let their children die? Where is the ethical place to draw the line between personal religious beliefs and a responsibility to protect children?