Actually, I’m not so sure about this. When parents refuse medical treatment for children with deadly diseases, I certainly think that is wrong.
But it’s not always clear that a child should go to a hospital because they are sick.
The article doesn’t say how long this went on, but it does report: “The father testified that he thought Madeline had the flu or a fever, and several relatives and family friends said they also did not realize how sick she was.”
If the child had died because her parents didn’t realize how sick she was, probably nothing would have been said about it. But because they held a prayer session, apparently that attracted the attention of the prosecutors.
I don’t know the details. Maybe the father’s version of what happened was contradicted by the facts. But we don’t really know that.
When I get sick, or one of my kids gets sick with a fever, usually we put them to bed as long as the fever isn’t too bad or doesn’t go on too long. Sometimes we call the doctor. But it is a matter of judgment, and we don’t really have enough here to know that the parents’ judgment was wrong. For instance, if you have the flu or a stomach bug, you probably can’t eat for 24 hours. You have “no appetite.” That’s obviously different from a refusal to eat for a long time. Again, we aren’t really told what happened.
So, either the parents screwed up, or the prosecutor and jury were anti-Christian bigots. I’m unsure which.
Might have been a combination of both.
Unconsciousness is plenty reason to call the doc.