Freedom of religion is one of the great things about our country. You can choose which religion you want to belong to and for the most part, how you want to express your belief. When does that cross that border? Well, there's certainly some questions to be drawn from a choice two parents made when they decided that religion would be a better course of action to fight a treatable form of diabetes than traditional medicine.
While the choice is a controversial one, an autopsy confirmed that young Madeline Neumann, the 11 year-old daughter, died of diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that left too little insulin in her body.
To make matter worse, doctors are saying that she was probably ill for a month, a month which likely saw her suffer from nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness. A decision on whether or not to prosecute her parents is forthcoming.
I think the real tragedy in this is obviously the little girl's passing, but it brings about discussion as to when is it OK to shun medicine for any reason. Unfortunately in this case, the decision to use prayer instead of medicine in treating a treatable condition may have just resulted in the death of an 11 year-old child.
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