Não seria a hora de os governos intervirem mais firmemente contra essas igrejas cristãs fundamentalistas?
Faith-healing parents charged with MURDER after second child died in their home from pneumonia without getting medical help while they were on probation over death of first son
Autopsy report showed Brandon Schaible died from bacterial pneumonia in April, and his death was ruled a homicide
Parents Herbert and Catherine Schaible were on probation after their 2-year-old son Kent also died of pneumonia in 2009
Schaibles belong to fundamentalist Christian church, which teaches that it's a sin to rely on modern medicine over prayer
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 22:10 GMT, 22 May 2013 | UPDATED: 22:33 GMT, 22 May 2013
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A Philadelphia couple who believe in faith healing over medicine were charged with murder Wednesday after their 7-month-old son died four years after the passing of his brother.
Herbert and Catherine Schaible ignored a court order to seek medical care if their children needed it, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The requirement was a condition of the probation sentence they received after the 2009 pneumonia death of their toddler son, Kent, four years prior.
Charged: Herbert and Catherine Schaible, from Philadelphia, have lost a second son, Brandon, to pneumonia after the 2009 death of their toddler, Kent, from the same illness
First Assistant District Attorney Ed McCann says the Schaibles are entitled to their religious beliefs – until it endangers their children.
‘How many kids have to die before it becomes extreme indifference to human life?’ McCann said in announcing the charges. ‘They killed one kid already.’
A Philadelphia medical examiner has ruled 7-month-old Brandon Schaible’s death a homicide after an autopsy report found that the infant died April 18 from bacterial pneumonia and dehydration, UPI reported.
The Schaibles are members and former teachers at the fundamentalist First Century Gospel Church in northeast Philadelphia.
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The church's website quotes Bible verses purportedly forbidding Christians from visiting doctors or taking medicine and suggests it's a sin to trust in medicine over faith.
Catherine Schaible declined to comment earlier Wednesday, before the arrest warrants were issued. Defense lawyers call the couple loving parents who did not intend for their sons to die.
Faith-healing: First Century Gospel Church, where the parents are members, says using medicine is a sin
A jury had convicted them of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment after the 2009 death of 2-year-old Kent, who had been sick for about two weeks.
Herbert and Catherine Schaible told homicide detectives at the time: ‘We tried to fight the devil, but in the end the devil won.'
Brandon Schaible died of pneumonia in April after suffering from diarrhea and breathing problems for at least a week, and refusing to eat.
‘The circumstances are eerily similar,’ said Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore, who handled the first trial and pushed for prison time because she feared the couple would not follow the court's order on medical care.
A conviction on the new case could bring seven to 14 years in prison or more, prosecutors said.The parents remain free as they await a probation hearing set for June 10, according to Philly.com.
About a dozen children a year die in the U.S. when their parents choose prayer over medical care, according to Shawn Francis Peters, a University of Wisconsin lecturer who wrote ‘When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children and the Law.’
In a handful of cases, the parents later watch a second child die.
Justice: Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, announced Herbert and Catherine Schaible, who believe in faith healing over medicine have been charged with murder after a second child died of pneumonia
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‘One of the building blocks of our legal system is the idea that people will be afraid of being punished,’ Peters said. But people who trust in faith healing fear ‘a different kind of punishment,’ he said.
‘It's not an earthly punishment meted out by the state of Pennsylvania. It's punishment going to be delivered by the Almighty on Judgment Day. It's difficult to find a legal regime that can change that.’
The Schaibles, who quit school after ninth grade, have worked as teachers at their church. They are in their mid-40s, and their oldest child will soon turn 18.
Their seven surviving children were placed in foster care after a parole violation hearing last month, when a judge rebuked them for failing to seek medical care for Brandon.
‘I am sorry for your loss. Deeply sorry,’ Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner told the couple. ‘But in all honesty, I am more sorry for the fact that this innocent little child will not be able to grow up to be what he wanted to be.’
Catherine Schaible's public defender, Mythri Jayaraman, said Brandon had seen a doctor at least once in his life.
‘When he was 10 days old, he had been taken to a doctor for a checkup, and to make sure everything was OK. We don't know beyond that,’ Jayaraman told The Associated Press.
Bobby Hoof, the lawyer who represented Herbert Schaible in the earlier case, described the couple as loving parents who grieved over Kent's death.
‘He's a father just like the rest of us. He loves his children, wants to see them educated,’ said Hoof, who does not know if he will be appointed in the new case. ‘It's hard to indict someone for what they believe.’
Beliefs: Pastor Nelson Clark of the First Century Gospel Church tells followers to shun 21-century medicine for the power of prayer
The parents were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in December 2010 after their son Kent died from bacterial pneumonia.
A judge spared them jail, but said they must take their remaining seven children for regular check-ups with a doctor.
LIVING ON A PRAYER: THE CASUALTIES OF FAITH-HEALING
It is estimated that around a dozen U.S. children die in faith-healing cases each year, a handful of which spawn criminal charges, according to experts.
The First Century Gospel Church of Philadelphia’s teachings has clashed with authorities in the past.
In 1991, eight children died in a measles epidemic. All the parents were members of either First Century Gospel Church or the nearby Faith Tabernacle of Nicetown which also preaches faith-healing.
The tragedies are not isolated to Pennsylvania. In Oregon, Jeff and Marci Beagley, were sentenced to 16 months in 2010 for the death of their 16-year-old son. The couple refused to use medicine for their son Neil, who was suffering from a preventable urinary tract blockage. Instead, they prayed and used anointing oils in the hope of divine intervention.
'Too many children have died unnecessarily - a graveyard full,' Judge Steven Maurer said at their sentencing. 'This has to stop.'
They were also sentenced to ten years probation.
The Philadelphia court heard that in January 2009 the couple refused to call a doctor during the two weeks their son was sick with a cold, which eventually led to pneumonia.
His symptoms included coughing, congestion, fatigue and a loss of appetite, although his parents claimed he was eating and drinking until his final day.
The 42-year-old father teaches at a school affiliated with the church. His wife, 41, previously taught there, but now stays at home with the couple's children.
They both grew up in the church and have never received medical care, apart from help from an 84-year-old lay midwife who attends home births, according to pastor Nelson A. Clark.
Clarke explained that the church did not shun members who seek medical care, but prayed that they make a different choice next time.
Using medicine is considered a sin by the church.
Following the guilty verdict Clark said: ‘The legal community is trying to force our church group to put them in the hands of this flawed medical system, when they have chosen to put them in the hands of a perfect God, who does not make mistakes.’
Jeff Beagley and his wife Marci were sentenced last year to 16 months in 2010 after using oils and prayer instead of medicine to treat their son, Neil, who then died from a preventable urinary tract blockage
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