Denying children critical care may be divinely ordained for some parents, but it should not be countenanced by the legal system. Until courts refuse to accept religion as a mitigating factor in sentencing in such cases, children will continue to die, neglected as an article of their parents' faith.
My first, knee-jerk, thought upon reading Turley's piece is that it reminds me of that Simpsons episode, where at one point all the characters run around saying, in tones of earnest pleading, "But, what about the children?!?" Far too many state-sanctioned crimes are committed in the name of "doing good" rather than considering the implications of acting out of compassion without thought.
It is certainly something to mourn, the deaths of these children. It would be nice if they had a different view of the role of medicine as something God-given, a palliative we can make use of precisely because God has given us the intellectual and physical capacity to heal, artificially, deep wounds and illnesses. Yet, they do not so believe. Moreover, to force them through state-action to violate the tenets of their belief is far more horrible, even for them, then losing a child; it imperils their place before God. When the state insists that it has not only a right but a duty to place itself before anyone's relationship with his or her God, we are edging in to dangerous waters.
