Best interests of the child vs parental beliefs

[Lamplighter]

Oregon has numerous religious sects, some in the cities and some in the boondocks.
For the most part, Oregon laws are protective, or a least neutral, toward such groups.

But over the years, we have heard of children dying or
suffering (needlessly ?) due to the religious beliefs of their parents.
Sometimes the State steps in to protect/treat such children, sometimes not.

Here is a case that is unusual in that both parents are sentenced to jail, and
prosecutors are saying openly it is to send a message to the churches.

The Oregonian
Steve Mayes, The Oregonian
October 31, 2011
Note: There is more to the article than I've shown below

Dale and Shannon Hickman receive 6-year sentence, harshest yet for faith-healing church

OREGON CITY – A Clackamas County judge stunned a courtroom packed with supporters
of Dale and Shannon Hickman Monday when he sentenced the couple,
members of an Oregon City faith-healing church, to prison for six years and three months.
<snip>
The Hickmans were convicted of second-degree manslaughter in September
for failing to seek medical care for their son David,
who was born two months prematurely and lived less than nine hours.
An autopsy found he had staph pneumonia and underdeveloped lungs.

Had the Hickmans conceded at trial that David was sick -- but not gravely ill --
and that they relied on faith-healing rituals to cure him, they might have fared differently at sentencing.
But instead of invoking a religious defense, the Hickmans said they saw no reason to call 9-1-1
or seek medical assistance because there was nothing wrong with their son, even as he grew weaker and died.

During the trial, the Hickmans testified that God determines the outcome in all matters.
"Everything that happens, whether it's good or bad, it's God's will,"
Dale Hickman told jurors. "If it's not God's will, it wouldn't be done."

Prosecutor Mike Regan said the sentence sends a message to the church.
The Followers are not fundamentally different from a black-robed pagan group
that sacrifices a sick child in the dead of night, Regan told the court.
In the Followers, "we have a religious group sacrificing children's lives,
year after year, decade after decade," he said. "We have to do something."

Recent juries have seemed generally unsympathetic to the Followers.
Jurors displayed a clear-eyed focus on the legal question underlying all the cases:

What would a reasonable person do in the same situation?
Their short answer: Call a doctor.