OVO

Rita Swan heads Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty. A former Christian Scientist, she left the church when her toddler, Matthew, died of untreated meningitis. Her article Letting Children Die for the Faith had some pretty amazing claims about religious exemption from criminal prosecution. A bit of research on my part revealed that at one time Oregon law stated that parents could refused hearing tests for newborns, refuse to compel their children to wear bicycle helmets, refuse to give vitamin K to children with internal bleeding, and most remarakably of all, parents in Oregon were exempt from prosecution of homicide by abuse child abuse, neglect, manslaughter, criminal mistreatment, and criminal nonsupport – if they could demonstrate they abused or killed or neglected their child ‘religiously.’ After these laws were exposed, those laws excusing religious child abuse, neglect, manslaughter, criminal mistreatment, and criminal nonsupport were repealed. I don’t know about the hearing tests, bike helmets or vitamin K yet.