Hello Everyone.
First off, I did not read EVERY post in this thread, sorry for that. I only found this forum yesterday and found it a bit long to follow every single posting duel.
Nevertheless, I would like to add my 2 cents:
Someone said something to the effect, that the parents are the Stewards (I would prefer Guardians) of their children. As Guardians, they are obliged to act in the best interest of the children. This means, they have to use ALL methods available, to improve a child's condition, in descending order of effectiveness. Even if they tried prayer first (although evidence suggests that modern medicine has a better chance of success), after at most a week of "not working" they should have started looking for other methods: maybe, if still shunning mm, homeopathy, herbalism which might even have led to a mm-practitioner finally seeing the girl.
Failing to do that, the parents failed in their guardianship and should be punished accordingly. Maybe not by prison, forcing the other children into foster care, but maybe enforced regular controls by authorities on the health status of the children.
Second, someone mentioned that it is proved that people of faith have better healing chances than people without faith. That would of course be, when they already are in medical care. Don't know though about the validity of that statement (
Yeah, it's Wikipedia, I know
Lastly, since someone briefly touched on other religious beliefs, I would like to quote some scripture:
Surah 6, Verse 140 writes:
Those who kill their children foolishly without any knowledge and make what Allah has provided for them forbidden, inventing lies against Allah, such people are lost. They are misguided. They are not guided.
Surah 5, Verse 33 writes:
On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our apostles with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.
says nothing there about the methods of killing or saving, just the outcome is judged.
and
Sura 81, Verses 8,9,14 writes:
When the female (infant), buried alive, is questioned - For what crime she was killed; /.../ (Then) shall each soul know what it has put forward.
This implies that a parent has no right to decide whether a child has to die or not. In extension (considering the other verses), parents have on the contrary the obligation to do
everything to save their child.
So, Best regards, everyone.
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