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I think the sentence is overly harsh. Not in terms of the harm they've caused, but in terms of their levels of intent.
Whatever their belief, they lost their child. However much they may believe that to be God's will, it doesn't mean losing that child wouldn't have hurt as much as any parent would at the loss of a baby. Compounding that grief with a long prison sentence is I think overly harsh.
I'm not quite sure what the answer is in this sort of case. I think forcing them to take some kind of responsibility for what their actions, or inaction, have resulted in is a good thing. A prison sentence is a clear and easily understood expression of that responsibility. Maybe there should be a little reprogramming whilst they're in there, although that may be unconstitutional, i dunno.
But 6 years? This wasn't carelessness, or intentional cruelty. Their actions were fully founded in a strong and perfectly legal faith. One in which society deemed it acceptable that they be raised and educated, and whose right to set the moral standards of their world was constitutionally protected. As long as it is acceptable for church elders and others within a community to perpetrate the notion that good parenting involves total acceptance of God's will to the point of fatal neglect, then parents like these will fail to save their young ones when illness or injury strike.
Again, what the answer is, I don't know. But I feel a lot of sorrow for those parents.
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