The question is whether or not Parents have ANY obligation to provide reasonable medical care to their children. In this case, the parents decided to ignore the advice of a medical professional, and avoided traditional medicine that would likely have saved their child's life.
Jehovah's witnesses do not believe in blood transfusions- should they be allowed to deny their child a blood transfusion that will save the child's life? IF parents have the authority to deny medical care to their child- then at what point does anything become neglect?
According to prosecutors, David and Collet stubbornly refused to take their sick son to see a doctor, instead giving him home remedies such as smoothies containing hot pepper, ginger root, horseradish, onion and apple cider vinegar. Even after warnings from a family friend who is a nurse, the anti-vaccine couple took him to a naturopath for echinacea — an herb believed to stimulate the immune system — instead of to a doctor for an exam.
It was only when Ezekiel began to have trouble breathing that they rushed him to a hospital, prosecutors said.
By then, it was too late.
Ezekiel died from bacterial meningitis and empyema, two conditions routinely cured with antibiotics, a medical examiner told the court last week, according to the Lethbridge Herald.