Prayers alone don’t take the place of good ol’ medical treatment by a real live doctor, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
Dale and Shannon Hickman, an Oregon City couple whose premature baby, David, died just nine hours after he was born, were convicted of second-degree manslaughter for failing to seek medical attention for their son.
The couple appealed the decision handed down by a unanimous Clackamas County jury in September 2011, but logic and western medicine prevailed and the Supreme Court affirmed the conviction.
David was born two months premature at his grandparents’ home. Pediatric professionals testified at trial the baby had a 90 percent chance of surviving if he’d received proper medical attention. Instead, the couple—who are lifelong members of the controversial Followers of Christ Church—relied on prayer, the laying on of hands, and anointing the sick child with olive oil to save his life.
Instead, after struggling to breathe for nine hours with underdeveloped lungs, David died.
The Hickmans were sentenced to six years and three months under mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines set forth by Measure 11.
Monsters, like their imaginary maker.
He looks like he’d go running to the Minute Clinic with an ingrown toe nail.
The article you link to says that 6-year sentence probably isn’t going to happen.
“However, because of a religious exemption that was eliminated after the Hickmans were indicted, they could face no more than 18 months in prison and a $250,000 fine.”
Goddamnit.
In their defense, they were not aware that God prefers EVOO.