Legal Action Set Against Parents in Religious Sect Who Refuse Medical Treatment for their Children

Parents in a religious sect in Idaho have denounced any medical treatment for years. That long-held tradition of Idaho's the Followers of Christ has resulted in grave consequences -- and sometimes death -- to their ill children.

Idaho exempts religious groups and faith healers from being prosecuted for felony crimes such as manslaughter since the 1970s. The Followers of Christ, which has numerous members in Idaho and Oregon, refuses all kinds of medical care, including midwives, the Guardian reported.

Daughter Sues Parents For Medical Neglect

Mariah Walton is one of those children who have parents in the religious sect. The 20-year-old Walton is weak and permanently disabled due to pulmonary hypertension. The illness is a high blood condition, which could have been treated when she was just an infant, by closing a small congenital hole in her heart.

Her parents refused to take her to a doctor and instead relied on faith, prayers and alternative medicine. Now, Walton wants her parents to be prosecuted for medical neglect.

The sect's Peaceful Valley cemetery is filled with graves of the children who have died after only living for a day, a week or a month. In 2015, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter initiated a taskforce, which found that the child mortality rate for the Followers of Christ between 2002 and 2011 was ten times higher than in the whole of Idaho, the Guardian further reported.

Shield Laws & Exemptions For Religious Beliefs

The rise of child abuse cases in the 1960s pushed pediatricians and activists to fight against the shield laws protecting faith healers. The Congress under former U.S. President Richard Nixon's administration helped states to fund programs combating shield laws, like the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, or Capta, signed in 1974, the Guardian wrote.

In 2011, Oregon removed all religious exemptions from required medical care, New Republic reported. Members of faith-healing sects can now be convicted of manslaughter for depending on the power of prayers instead of seeking medical care from professionals.

Amendments On Bans

Forty-eight states in the U.S. offers religious exemptions from vaccination as well, Slate Magazine reported. In states which offer shield laws for religious beliefs, some parents aren't charged for murder, child neglect and/or abuse, while others were acquitted or only given minimal sentences.

In Missouri, law professors have looked into a proposed religious liberty amendment that bans prosecution if a criminal act was committed due to an individual's religious beliefs, according to Fulton Sun. This exemption is also applicable to murder.

Professors have argued that the amendment could have dire consequences and could violate the U.S. Constitution's Establishment Clause, which ensures that the government does not favor a religion over another. What do you think about this story? Share your thoughts below!