Teen From Faith-Healing Family Refuses Treatment, Dies

[cosmicalstorm]

Wow, these people never cease to amaze me.

GLADSTONE, Ore. — Authorities say a teenager from a faith-healing family died from an illness that could have been easily treated, just a few months after a toddler cousin of his died in a case that has led to criminal charges.

Tuesday's death of 16-year-old Neil Beagley, however, may not be a crime because Oregon law allows minors 14 and older to decide for themselves whether to accept medical treatment.

"All of the interviews from last night are that he did in fact refuse treatment," police Sgt. Lynne Benton said Wednesday. "Unless we can disprove that, charges probably won't be filed in this case."

An autopsy Wednesday showed Beagley died of heart failure caused by a urinary tract blockage.

He likely had a congenital condition that constricted his urinary tract where the bladder empties into the urethra, and the condition of his organs indicates he had multiple blockages during his life, said Dr. Clifford Nelson, deputy state medical examiner for Clackamas County.

"You just build up so much urea in your bloodstream that it begins to poison your organs, and the heart is particularly susceptible," Nelson said.

Nelson said a catheter would have saved the boy's life. If the condition had been dealt with earlier, a urologist could easily have removed the blockage and avoided the kidney damage that came with the repeated illnesses, Nelson said.

Benton said a board member of the Followers of Christ church contacted the authorities after Beagley died at his family's home. The teen had been sick about a week, and church members and his family had gathered to pray Sunday when his condition worsened, Benton said.

In March, the boy's 15-month-old cousin Ava Worthington died at home from bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection.

Her parents, Carl and Raylene Worthington, also belong to the church. They have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminal mistreatment, and their defense attorneys have indicated they will use a religious freedom defense.

After earlier deaths involving children of Followers of Christ believers, a 1999 Oregon law struck down religious shields for parents who treat their children solely with prayer. No one had been prosecuted under it until the Worthingtons' case.

Members and former members of the church in Oregon City have told The Oregonian newspaper in previous interviews that the congregation has 1,200 people. It has no apparent ties to other congregations or any mainstream denomination.

[Vendetta]

Sad that a child was so effectively brainwashed by a church as to refuse simple treatment, but really, all I can see this as is cleaning up the gene pool.

[PeZook]

One would think that since faith-healing has managed to fail twice so far, it should cause these people to question that particular treatment method.

Yeah, I know. What a naive fellow I am.

[The Spartan]

I've posted this story, a modern parable if you will, in another similar thread but it's appropriate so I'll post it again:

A man lived near a river that was flooding. As the flood waters just reached his house a truck came by and offered to take him to safety. He declined, saying that god would save him.

A little while later he was on his roof as the waters were halfway up his house and a boat came by offering to take him to safety. He declined, saying that god would save him.

Later still, he was standing on the peak of the roof of his house with the waters lapping at his shoes and a helicopter came by throwing him a rescue harness to fly him to safety. He waved them away shouting, "God will save me!"

He drowned. And after he walked through the pearly gates he went right up to god and demanded to know why he didn't save him. God said, "I sent you a truck a boat and a helicopter, what more did you want you idiot?"

In this story, the flood waters are, well, any potentially fatal disease. The truck, boat and helicopter, i.e. the divine intervention these idiots are praying for, are the techniques of modern medicine.

[Oskuro]

all I can see this as is cleaning up the gene pool.

Unfortunately, ignorance is not specifically tied to genetics, or else these kind of situations would have been erradicated long ago.

Education is the equivalent of Natural Selection for the mind, with bad ideas unable to survive sound reasoning, wich is the reason why zealotish people try to avoid it, or to change it into something they agree with.

[The Big I]

Maybe the US government should take a leaf out of the Ugandan government's dealings with faith healing/witch doctors who claimed they could cure AIDS. Which was we will send you a patient with AIDS if you don't cure him you die very slowly and painfully. Suprisingly all the witchdoctors stop claiming they could cure AIDS after that .

[CaptainZoidberg]

That's kind of unfair to the patient with AIDS...

But really, I think we need to start getting tough on these alternative treatment quacks. If they can't prove that their treatment works, then they need to go to jail for fraud.

It's that simple.

[Kanastrous]

Fewer surviving children of Fundies, hopefully means fewer adult Fundies (and fewer next-generation offspring) down the road.

May as well look on the bright side.

[The Vortex Empire]

And some people can't see why I say that religion is a bad thing.

[wautd]

Fewer surviving children of Fundies, hopefully means fewer adult Fundies (and fewer next-generation offspring) down the road.

May as well look on the bright side.

That would work if they didn't outbreed the sane people. And stupidity isn't much of an evolutionary bad trait anymore this time and age

[Kanastrous]

Fewer surviving children of Fundies, hopefully means fewer adult Fundies (and fewer next-generation offspring) down the road.

May as well look on the bright side.

That would work if they didn't outbreed the sane people. And stupidity isn't much of an evolutionary bad trait anymore this time and age

I'm not thinking in terms of hereditary stupidity - if there really is such a thing - but in terms of children surviving to be mind-poisoned by their Fundie parents, and then in turn poisoning their offspring, etc, etc, etc.

Outbreeding aside, fewer Fundies means fewer Fundies: a net gain for the nation.