Oregon couple convicted in son's faith-healing death

[n2doc]

It was a home video not much different than those countless parents take of their baby's first minutes. In it, tiny David Hickman looked much like any other newborn: waving his arms, crying vigorously.

Later that night, though, the prematurely born infant started having trouble breathing. His movements slowed. His father, Dale Hickman, anointed him with olive oil, held him in his arms and watched him die. No one called a doctor--Hickman and his wife, Shannon, are members of Oregon's Followers of Christ, a faith-healing church that advocates leaving human fate in the hands of God.

The Hickmans face sentencing on Oct. 31 after a jury in Clackamas County, Ore., convicted them Thursday of second-degree manslaughter in the 2009 death of their son.

The case is the fourth in recent years involving members of the Oregon City-based church, which led Oregon lawmakers in June to end the last remnants of provisions in state law that allow spiritual healing as a defense in homicide cases. Two other children linked to the Followers of Christ have died since 2008, and a third suffered serious medical repercussions.

"The fact here is that too many children have died, unnecessarily. Needlessly. They have died. And there is a graveyard nearly full of their bodies. And it has to stop. It just has to stop," Clackamas County Circuit Judge Steven Maurer said when imposing sentence last year against parents in one of those cases, Jeffrey and Marci Beagley, whose 16-year-old son died without medical treatment for a urinary tract blockage.

more

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/09/oregon-couple-convicted-in-sons-faith-healing-death.html

[RyanPsych]

1. Dammit Religion...

When will these people accept that medicine has a much better track record than their absurd superstitions?

[pacalo]

2. The mother felt she had to "submit to her husband"; now she must submit to the law.

A glaring example of why there is a separation of church & state.

Shannon Hickman said she had no access to a phone but in any case relied on her husband to make the decision about whether to call for help.

"I can say what I feel, but ultimately, he decides. It's kind of a fine line because I don't want to disobey him or anger him," she said. "If I gave him my opinion, and he told me to shut up and I didn't, then my marriage could be in jeopardy. I have to submit to my husband."

[HockeyMom]

3. Isn't this what Backman says?

Submit to her husband? Scary to think people want somebody like this, or rather her husband, to run the country.