preventable deaths among Oregon Followers of Christ

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kc8tbe
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preventable deaths among Oregon Followers of Christ

Post by kc8tbe »

This month, a 16-month-old child died of a disease that could have easily been treated with antibiotics because her parents' sect of Christianity only permits faith healing. The article:
http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascoun ... _lack.html
Evidently, this has been an ongoing problem for the Oregon City Followers of Christ. See these older articles:
http://www.rickross.com/reference/foc/foc1.html
http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/deadbabies.htm
Shielded by state laws that are among the most liberal in the nation at protecting faith-healing parents, the Oregon City Followers of Christ Church has amassed one of the largest clusters of child deaths recorded among the nation's spiritual-healing churches.

More than a fourth of the nearly 100 child and maternal deaths in the past 30 years among the Followers of Christ in Oregon, Oklahoma and Idaho were probably preventable with routine medical care. Dozens more probably could have been prevented, medical experts say, but spotty death investigations make the total impossible to determine.
What amazes me is that the government has been aware of the problem since 1965, yet few cases have been prosecuted. Given the frequency with which we hear about Jehovah's Witness legal cases, I think it's really surprising.
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