(Insert title here)
S.A.M. said:
So I'm curious, if doctors want to perform a procedure on a child in a hospital, do they need the consent of the parents?
If the parents withhold consent, can they be charged with negligence?
If the doctors perform the procedure without consent, can the parents hold them responsible for any negative outcome?
Depends on the procedure. To wit, my partner didn't like the way we were going about my daughter's immunizations; because we had delayed, we stacked shots in order to catch her up. Had one of the shots, or a combination of shots, actually made my daughter sick, would a chronic liar who deliberately took her daughter off the health policy in order to have more money to spend at the bar—thus resulting in the delay starting the immunization regimen—have any real legal case? Maybe.
But there are people out there who swear immunizations are more dangerous for kids than letting them get sick. You know, my kid would be better off with
polio than a shot. At least, some would say.
And yet people get exemptions so their kids don't have immunizations, and they feel justified because their child never catches diphtheria. Of course, they don't stop to think about the fact that when their child is surrounded by an immunized community, certain illnesses have a harder time reaching the child.
I've never heard, though, of an appendectomy or tonsillectomy being at the heart of a patient's rights case. It's hard to say.
A blood transfusion? The doctors would endure the same liability they would for any other. Wrong blood? Dead child? Whoops. Your career is over, and the doctor will be lucky to avoid prison. Bad blood, kid catches HIV? A number of organizations will eventually pay out hefty sums.
The range of the hypothetical is extremely broad, though, S.A.M. Depending on the procedure and the necessity, the answers vary.
Parents withholding consent
can be charged. With what, exactly, depends on the jurisdiction, as does the point at which it becomes a criminal matter. From Oregon, for instance, both sides:
Until the faith-healing death of an Oregon City girl this month, members of the Followers of Christ Church appear to have lost just one child to sickness since 1999, when Oregon banned parents from treating gravely ill children solely with prayer.
Tyler Duane Shaw of Oregon City died in 2003, three days short of his second birthday, of sudden complications from a throat infection. "His death was not considered to be anything but a natural death that had no indications of abuse or neglect," said Dr. Clifford Nelson, deputy state medical examiner ....
.... Since the new laws took effect in 1999, said child abuse Detective Jeff Green of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, "We haven't seen any cases of significant medical neglect . . . until now."
Fifteen-month-old Ava Worthington died at home March 2 of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection that could have been treated with antibiotics, according to the state medical examiner's office.
On Friday, a Clackamas County grand jury indicted her parents, Carl Brent and Raylene Worthington, on charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminal mistreatment.
Ava Worthington's death brought back memories of Followers of Christ children who suffered and died before Oregon removed religious exemptions from state child abuse and homicide laws.
Tyler Shaw's sister, 5 1/2-month-old Valarie Lynn Shaw, was one of three Followers of Christ children who died in 1997 and 1998 after parents tried to heal them with prayer. The deaths, all from medically treatable conditions, sparked a firestorm among state legislators, who promptly struck down legal shields for faith-healing parents.
(
Bruder)
In the meantime, returning our attention to Madeline Neumann, I'm not sure what to make of the detail from Bill Glauber at the
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
On the night before 11-year-old Madeline Kara Neumann died of complications from untreated diabetes, her parents did not call a doctor.
Instead, Dale and Leilani Neumann prayed over the telephone Saturday with the founder of a religious Web site named AmericasLastDays.com.
The stunning detail was revealed Thursday by David Eells, whose Unleavened Bread Ministries operates the Web site that focuses on religious healing and the apocalypse. Leilani Neumann, who lives in the Town of Weston, wrote two posts on the Web site.
Eells, 59, who lives in Pensacola, Fla., said he was asked by an elder to call the parents and pray for their daughter.
In a statement posted on the Web site, Eells says that the child had started to get sick "in just the last day or so" and the parents "asked me to pray and agree with them in prayer, basically because she appeared pale and listless. They did not seem overly concerned because they had had healings before. This is not an unusual kind of request to us."
Eells said he received another call from the Neumanns on Sunday as the family "followed an emergency vehicle with Kara in it. They told me that she had stopped breathing and asked if I would pray that the Lord would spare her and raise her up, which I did."
The girl was pronounced dead at St. Clare's Hospital ....
(
Glauber)
Mr. Eells issued
a press release earlier today, but I'm not even going to start on that. It's best left for the Religion forum, or perhaps the Cesspool.
_____________________
Notes:
Bruder, Jessica. "Couple from faith-healing Oregon church indicted in baby's death". OregonLive.com. March 30, 2008. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/120676294593670.xml&coll=7
Glauber, Bill. "Parents prayed with ministry founder". Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=733033
See Also:
Wilson, Kimberly A. C., "Parents indicted, then surrender in faith-healing case". OregonLive.com. March 29, 2008. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1206773725138750.xml&coll=7
Eells, David. "Third Press Release from Unleavened Bread Ministries Regarding the Death of 11-Year-Old Madeline Kara Neumann". Unleavened Bread Ministries. April 2, 2008. http://www.unleavenedbreadministries.org/?page=pressrelease3
