Last week a Canadian court sentenced David Stephan to four months in jail and his wife Collet to three months of house arrest for their role in the death of their 19 month old son Ezekiel in 2012.
When Ezekiel became ill, his parents thought he had some form of "flu," and treated him with herbs and a mixture of apple cider, vinegar, horse radish root, hot peppers, mashed onion, garlic and ginger root. A friend who was a nurse told them he might have meningitis, but they persevered in their efforts to treat him by the "natural" modalities they believed in. A witness testified that when they drove Ezekiel to a naturopathic clinic, he was too stiff to sit in his car seat. As his condition worsened, his parents had to feed him with an eye dropper. They only summoned medical help when Ezekiel stopped breathing. The child suffered severe brain damage from anoxia and died a few days later.
David and Collet are part of a community built around vaccine refusal and faith in "natural" remedies. David's father Anthony founded TrueHope, after his wife, who suffered from bipolar illness, committed suicide. The company markets EMPowerplus, a "natural" product that they claim as a cure for bipolar disorder, depression, and even autism. Ezekiel's father David is Vice-President of the company.
David and Collet were convicted under a Canadian law that requires parents "to provide necessaries of life for a child under the age of sixteen years." The prosecution asked the judge to sentence them to 3.5 - 4 years in prison, close to the maximum the law allows (5 years). The judge called that "too harsh." He required prison for David because David refused to take responsibility for his actions. He asserted that a government conspiracy to squelch vaccine refusal was at work, and blamed Ezekiel's death on faulty ambulance care. In the judge's view, Collet was less responsible for Ezekiel's death. In addition to house arrest, he required her to publish his findings on her website. After their jail and house arrest terms, David and Collet will be on probation for two years, and will be required to obtain regular medical attention for their children.
Adults capable of making decisions are and should be free to choose no treatment or quack interventions. But they should not be free to refuse potentially life saving interventions - like antibiotics for bacterial pneumonia - for their children. Seen through the lens of both law and ethics, the judge ruled correctly. David and Collet loved Ezekiel, but they - especially David - made decisions a "reasonable" parent would know to be wrong. Ezekiel paid for their commitment to their "naturopathic" doctrines with his life.
(For a compendium of articles on the situation, see here.)
When Ezekiel became ill, his parents thought he had some form of "flu," and treated him with herbs and a mixture of apple cider, vinegar, horse radish root, hot peppers, mashed onion, garlic and ginger root. A friend who was a nurse told them he might have meningitis, but they persevered in their efforts to treat him by the "natural" modalities they believed in. A witness testified that when they drove Ezekiel to a naturopathic clinic, he was too stiff to sit in his car seat. As his condition worsened, his parents had to feed him with an eye dropper. They only summoned medical help when Ezekiel stopped breathing. The child suffered severe brain damage from anoxia and died a few days later.
David and Collet are part of a community built around vaccine refusal and faith in "natural" remedies. David's father Anthony founded TrueHope, after his wife, who suffered from bipolar illness, committed suicide. The company markets EMPowerplus, a "natural" product that they claim as a cure for bipolar disorder, depression, and even autism. Ezekiel's father David is Vice-President of the company.
David and Collet were convicted under a Canadian law that requires parents "to provide necessaries of life for a child under the age of sixteen years." The prosecution asked the judge to sentence them to 3.5 - 4 years in prison, close to the maximum the law allows (5 years). The judge called that "too harsh." He required prison for David because David refused to take responsibility for his actions. He asserted that a government conspiracy to squelch vaccine refusal was at work, and blamed Ezekiel's death on faulty ambulance care. In the judge's view, Collet was less responsible for Ezekiel's death. In addition to house arrest, he required her to publish his findings on her website. After their jail and house arrest terms, David and Collet will be on probation for two years, and will be required to obtain regular medical attention for their children.
Adults capable of making decisions are and should be free to choose no treatment or quack interventions. But they should not be free to refuse potentially life saving interventions - like antibiotics for bacterial pneumonia - for their children. Seen through the lens of both law and ethics, the judge ruled correctly. David and Collet loved Ezekiel, but they - especially David - made decisions a "reasonable" parent would know to be wrong. Ezekiel paid for their commitment to their "naturopathic" doctrines with his life.
(For a compendium of articles on the situation, see here.)
No comments:
Post a Comment