"God helps those who help themselves"

I know Ben Franklin said it, but I believe it.  God gave us free will.  Those parents used free will by not taking their daughter to the hospital.  Their free will cost their daughter her life.  She died an awful       and they deserve to be punished.  

For the record, I'm Catholic and go to church every week.  I live my life the best I can.  

I think that's nothing less than murder. Those parents are just plain stupid.

Also, they are deranged. They believe she died because they didn't pray enough. They still believe she can be resurrected.  I can't understand why their other children haven't been removed from their home.

The problem I have with this story is the imposition of the parents' belief system on the child's health.  It's fine if you believe that prayer can overcome your own disease, but you have no right to demand that your child submit to that belief system, when it is a matter of your child's life or (in this case) very preventable death.  

I just want to say, Cole, that you did an amazing job with this post. Sad story. Beautiful perspective.

I realize a joke here might not be in the besst of taste, but there is a joke that sums up my feelings on this:

A religious  man  climbed up onto his roof when a flood hit, praying for God to save him. A boat came by, and he waved them off:  "Save someone else, God will save me."  A helicopter came by; same thing. The flood waters rose higher, and he drowned. Finally face-to-face with God, he demanded, "Why didn't you save me when I prayed?"  God sighed. "I sent a boat, I sent a helicopter..."

I was diagnosed with diabetes at age 11 and experienced the same symptoms as Madeline. It was an awful experience, but luckily my parents took me to a doctor. He diagnosed me with a sinus infection(!). My parents said impossible, and took an ER, where a nurse diagnosed me (correctly) upon entry in the doorway. I am saddened that this young lady had to spend (what did not have to be) her last days in this state. Very very sad story.

The mother has stated that they are not in the wrong because "We know we did the best for our daughter we knew how to do".  That is inexcusable...they knew very well where to get her medical attention and made a conscious decision not to.  I think this is a very very sad, unfortunate, and preventable tragedy.

Religion is too often used as an excuse to do horrible things.  This country has to walk a fine line on the subject.  They belong in jail for being lazy and for murder.  

I know someone who ended up a paraplegic because the parents chose prayer over medical intervention for a condition that could have been treated. He's never forgiven them.

And why does prayer preclude science? There's a reason that hospitals have chapels.

Actually, there was a similar case in Canada a few years ago ( R v Tutton) and the parents were found guilty of negligence and failure to provide the necessities of life and they were sent to jail.  Yes, prayer does work, but at the same time, there must be a balance between faith and the expectations of a society, even if as a parent you feel it is too secular a society. That case verdict sent a clear message to any parent- this society will not put up with negligence, even if you dress it up as an issue of relgious freedoms.

I know some faiths co-exist very well with science - in my particular Jewish congregation, we take the attitude that God does not answer the "how" of things - those are questions that people can answer, even if we can't answer them with our current science exactly at this moment - or even if we never do.  But God, and faith, answer the questions science cannot - like whether something is a good or just or right thing to do.  I feel very comfortable with this approach, as I see it as not requiring denial of anything in the world.

But I know a lot of folks whose religion does require them to deny things that are in the world, and to turn away from them - whether it's my friend the Seventh Day Adventist who won't celebrate Hallowe'en - or any other holiday - or my devout Catholic grandfather who would never feel OK about women leading a mass, let alone contraception.

I know that these parents must have agonized and been truly anguished by the death of their daughter - any parent would be (barring mental illness in some cases).  It must have been incredibly difficult to turn away from something you know could save a child, when you don't believe it's an OK thing to use.

As a diabetic, I can't imagine the horror that would be dying of uncontrolled diabetes.  It terrifies and sickens me.

But I can't find it in me to echo the criticisms I see here.  I know those parents paid a price.  I know the child died, when she didn't have to - and I'm saddened and horrified by that.  I wouldn't make the same choice myself.  But my faith doesn't require me to.  And without knowing what that's like, and imagining what it would be like to lose my daughter - I feel sorrow and fear and sadness, but not anger.

33 people died at Virginia Tech last year because Cho's mom called the pastor instead of the doctor when she knew her son needed mental help.  He didn't go to see the pastor, either.  Who knows, maybe the pastor would've sent him to the doctor.