Editor’s note: this version of Mr. Gier’s column is an expanded version from the one currently in print.<\/em><\/p>\n

But it does not follow they are free to make martyrs of their children.<\/p>\n

Forty to 100 Idahoans die each year because they have no health insurance. The primary cause of this senseless tragedy is the Republican Legislature\u2019s refusal to extend Medicaid to 78,000 Idahoans. Regarding preventable deaths, the U. S. ranks last among 16 high-income industrialized nations.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of Idaho\u2019s children have died because of Idaho\u2019s religious shield law, which prevents the prosecution of parents who fail to provide medical care for their sons and daughters. Even though the Governor\u2019s Task Force on Children at Risk has recommended changes to this law, a legislative committee assigned to study the issue this summer adjourned without doing anything.<\/p>\n

Appearing before this committee, a member of the Followers of Christ testified that his church believes that children are property, and that they do not seek medical care because doctors are from the Devil.\u00a0\u00a0Child activist Linda Martin, a former member of this fanatical sect, claims that two of this man\u2019s children died of untreated pneumonia.<\/p>\n

\u201cPro-life\u201d legislators are fiercely committed to the unborn, but they appear to give less value to their lives after birth.\u00a0\u00a0There are honest differences of opinions about whether the fetus is a person, but there is no question about the issue about children and adults.<\/p>\n

In 1972 Idaho passed a law, without any recorded debate, to provided religious exemptions for child medical care. Many states passed similar legislation because then President Richard Nixon\u2019s advisers\u2014John Erlichmann J. R. Haldeman, both Christian Scientists\u2014had insisted that prayer be included an accepted treatment for illness.<\/p>\n

In 1987 the Department of Health and Human Services declared that, under the Child Abuse and Treatment Act, such religious exemptions \u201cshould not be imposed by federal regulation.\u201d In 2011 Oregon removed the exemption, and since then there have been three convictions for criminal mistreatment, negligent homicide, and second degree manslaughter of children.<\/p>\n

Idaho is only one of nine states that still have laws that shield parents from prosecution of negligent homicide, manslaughter, or capital murder.\u00a0Since 1990, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Oregon, and South Dakota have repealed some or all\u00a0religious exemptions for medical care for a sick child.\u00a0 Some states still allow parents to forego immunizations, but not necessarily for religious reasons.<\/p>\n

Child activist Linda Martin is touring the state and speaking about the effects of Idaho\u2019s failure to protect its children.\u00a0\u00a0She left the Followers of Christ at the age of 16, and she has testified to the needless child deaths in her family and members of her former church.\u00a0\u00a0Members of Followers of Christ and the Church of the First Born, who also neglect their children, are found primarily in Southwest Idaho.<\/p>\n

During a panel discussion in Moscow, Martin showed slides of headstones from Canyon County\u2019s Peaceful Valley Cemetery. Of the 613 graves, 210 were child burial sites. This mortality rate is ten times the Idaho\u2019s pediatric population as a whole.<\/p>\n

Some of these children no doubt died from accidents or illnesses that defied treatment, but even with this qualification, this number is totally unacceptable. This is only one cemetery, so there definitely more graves of shame in Idaho.<\/p>\n

One of Martin\u2019s cousins died due to a case of untreated pneumonia.\u00a0\u00a0Incredibly enough, the then 9-year-old Martin was blamed for the death because she was misbehaving.\u00a0\u00a0Suffering for ten years, another cousin died because he received no insulin for his diabetes.<\/p>\n

One of Martin\u2019s nephews has suffered for years with an untreated rupture.\u00a0An unrelated 15-year-old girl in the church fell ill from food poisoning. She vomited so hard that she ruptured her esophagus. Without medical care she bled to death.<\/p>\n

It is not only the children who suffer. When Martin\u2019s mother was dying, she asked to be taken to a hospital. No one, including her own husband, would honor her request without palliative care.\u00a0\u00a0Most church members who seek medical care for themselves or others are shunned, but some, astonishingly, are not.<\/p>\n

Hypocrisy, Discrimination, and the Validity of Religious Exemption<\/strong><\/p>\n

Martin experienced outright hypocrisy and discrimination by some church members.\u00a0\u00a0They would take one child to the doctor but let others expire of treatable medical conditions. Some would neglect their sick children completely, but then seek medical help for their own illnesses. One church elder prayed over members who were ill, denying them medical care, while he sought treatment for prostate cancer.<\/p>\n

Martin\u2019s brother chose to have a half million-dollar operation (Idaho\u2019s taxpayers paid the bill) for a heart condition, and her sister-in-law went to a doctor after a stroke. Her brother said that he chose surgery because his congregation\u2019s prayers did not heal this heart. Martin said that none of their children receive medical care and one of them died as a result. Prayer did not appear to work on this child either.<\/p>\n

Every American has a First Amendment right to follow her\/his own conscience, and to lead a life of religious faith.\u00a0\u00a0We have always held that the integrity and validity of beliefs are unimpeachable, but here we have clear examples of religious belief being used inconsistently and cynically with fatal results. It seems to me that these people have disqualified themselves from claiming a religious exemption.<\/p>\n

As I watched the slide show with profound sadness, I noticed that there were many head stones with the name \u201cShippy\u201d on them.\u00a0\u00a0I asked Martin about this, and she said that were at least 34 child graves with that name. The Followers of Christ are a tight-knit congregation who intermarry and, as a result, there are a high number of congenital illnesses. Under normal circumstances these serious conditions would require intensive and long-term medical care.<\/p>\n

Martin\u2019s two-year-old nephew was born with spinal bifida. He was given no physical therapy, and constrictions in his deformed brain caused horrible headaches. He died one month before is third birthday.<\/p>\n

Joining Martin on the Moscow panel was Professor Shaakirrah Sanders, a UI law professor.\u00a0\u00a0Sanders expertly analyzed the First Amendment and two types of protection for religious believers. There is an absolute right to believe or not to believe, but the free exercise clause is relative and limited.\u00a0\u00a0In all cases except these religious exemptions, the religious believer is not excused from following established laws.<\/p>\n

Sanders\u2019 most salient point was that religious exemptions for medical care may violate the free exercise clause.\u00a0\u00a0The government cannot prefer one religion over another, nor can it discriminate against people who have no religious faith.\u00a0\u00a0This means that atheists who neglect their children could be prosecuted, but believers are protected by the shield laws.\u00a0\u00a0This is discrimination plain and simple.<\/p>\n

Sanders reminded her audience that children have more rights than we may think. First and foremost among them is the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They also have free speech rights (in their schools, for example) independent of their parents.<\/p>\n

Children also have a right to privacy and the use of their bodies. Parents cannot force their girls to have an abortion, but their daughters do have the right to choose to end their pregnancy.\u00a0\u00a0Just like any adult, they also have a right to believe what they wish, including practicing their own religious faith.<\/p>\n

Children have a right to their own legal counsel and the right to petition a court.\u00a0\u00a0With the aid of a guardian ad litem a child could asked a judge to overrule its parents\u2019 refusal to provide medical care.\u00a0\u00a0Sanders argued that as children grow older these rights of personal autonomy become more extensive.<\/p>\n

Finally, Sanders contended that the state has a duty to thoroughly investigate all child deaths.\u00a0\u00a0Currently county coroners do not have consistent methods of reporting these cases. The Latah County Child Fatality Team, set up by former Sen. Dan Schmidt when he was coroner, is an exception.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>In 2011 KBOI2 reported that Canyon County coroner Vicki DeGues-Morris said that she \u201chasn\u2019t done an autopsy on a Followers of Christ child in years, because in Idaho it\u2019s not illegal for a parent or guardian to choose prayer over medicine as treat for a sick child.\u201d In April of this year, however, county spokesman Decker Jack said that\u00a0\u201cevery single death is reported and autopsies are almost always performed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin is very skeptical of these claims. She said that typically\u00a0DeGues-Morris would only interview the parents, sometimes with congregation members in attendance. In one case (and no doubt many more) a request to remove a child\u2019s body for an autopsy was firmly resisted. The coroner simply listed this death as \u201cundetermined.\u201d Martin\u2019s repeated requests for coroner reports have been ignored.<\/p>\n

Canyon County requires no permit to bury human remains, and many church children have no birth certificates. In most cases we have no proof of their existence or the nature of their deaths.<\/p>\n

A bill to repeal the religious exemption has been introduced by Democratic legislator John Gannon. The bill calls for the deletion of this sentence from one section of the Idaho Code:\u00a0\u201cTreatment by prayer or spiritual means alone shall not for that reason alone be construed to have violated the duty of care to such child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Lee Heider, chairman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, said that he would give the bill a hearing, but he reneged on his promise. He finally announced: \u201cRepublicans didn\u2019t feel the need to change the laws. We believe in the First Amendment to the Constitution. I don\u2019t think that states have a right to interfere in religions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another attempt in the House Judiciary Committee was also stalled.\u00a0\u00a0In a response to Martin, House Speaker\u00a0Scott Bedke was frank and forthcoming about his reasons for allowing the bill to die.\u00a0\u00a0He said that it was too controversial and there was no time left in the session.\u00a0\u00a0He also added that this was an election year.<\/p>\n

One cannot murder in the name of religion, and one cannot consume illegal drugs (except ceremonial peyote) in the name of religion. But nine states still allow believers to neglect their children to the point of death.<\/p>\n

Sen. Heider commends the Followers of Christ for being\u201cvery nice people.\u201d Coroner\u00a0DeGues-Morris also praises them for being\u00a0\u201cgood people,\u201d but committing negligent homicide is hardly an act of kindness.<\/p>\n

Nick Gier of Moscow taught religion and philosophy at the University of Idaho.\u00a0\u00a0Read his columns on civil rights at\u00a0https:\/\/webpages.uidaho.edu\/ngier\/CivilRights.htm.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Editor’s note: this version of Mr. Gier’s column is an expanded version from the one currently in print. An adult\u2019s religious freedom crosses the line when it causes death to a child. \u2013Child Activist Linda Martin These children…<\/p>\n
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