recent faith healing deaths

[SHAWN F PETERS]

I wanted to alert list members to two separate but related faith-healing cases that are brewing in Oregon and here in Wisconsin.  The facts of the cases are not precisely the same, but both involve the deaths of children whose parents provided spiritual treatment (prayer and possibly anointment) rather than the secular medical treatment that most likely would have saved the youngsters' lives. 

There has been such widespread media coverage of these cases that it's difficult for me to pick a single article or link.  However, you might start with:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/120702031416210.xml&coll=7

or 

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/DiabetesResource/story?id=4536593&page=1

The legal issues here are not as straightforward as you might think.  In such cases, prosecutors seeking to apply abuse, neglect, or manslaughter laws often run into specific exemptions for parents engaging in spiritual healing practices.  More than 30 states, including Wisconsin, have such provisions, but Oregon removed its proviso after a rash of similar faith-healing deaths about ten years ago.  

(If anyone is interested, I have new book, published by Oxford, on exactly this topic: "When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children, and the Law.")

Thanks,

-- SFP

Shawn Francis Peters
School of Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison
16 Ingraham Hall
1155 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706
(608) 265-5106
(608) 358-2969 (cell)