An Oregon City couple who tried to heal their dying daughter with prayer walked hand-in-hand into a crowded Clackamas County courtroom Monday and pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment.
Carl Brent Worthington, 28, and Raylene Marie Worthington, 25, are the first parents prosecuted since Oregon cracked down on faith-healing deaths nine years ago, according to legislators and legal experts. If convicted, they could spend more than six years in prison.
National advocates for religious freedom and child welfare have been following the Worthington case, and reporters shadowed the defendants from the moment they arrived Monday at the Clackamas County courthouse, flanked by attorneys.
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Their 15-month-old daughter, Ava Worthington, died at home March 2 from bacterial bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection. Both conditions could have been treated with antibiotics, according to Dr. Christopher Young, a deputy state medical examiner. Her breathing was further compromised by a benign, four-inch cyst on her neck that had never been medically addressed, Young said.
Six years is not enough. And, what's more, freaks like this should probably be sterilized so they don't bring any more children into this world to be tortured and abused by their backward, stupid beliefs.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
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16 comments:
csm, in general I do not agree with such extremes as sterilization or the death penalty, but it's cases like this that stretch my limits on such ideals. It is sooo tempting to agree about that. I do agree about six years being not nearly enough though. Oh, and of course, if they ever need medical care it should be refused them on the grounds of their own religious convictions.
Yes, sterilization is probably too extreme as punishment. But then, what should the punishment be for letting a child die when simple antibiotics would provided a cure? I mean, any fucker can have a child, but we have to have a license to own a dog or drive... I think the child is the greater responsibility.
I think a nice long jail sentence, with no medical care available, regardless what happens to them. Let their god protect them in prison.
Besides standard imprisonment, most of what the two of you are suggesting would probably be construed as unConstitutional. That piece of paper has a way of getting in the way, doesn't it?
lol, yep it sure does. Like I said, it's tempting. Don't make it right.
Here's a consitutional penalty for them - life in prison, no chance of parole.
please rise.
hear ye, hear ye, the honorable judge weedy mctokenstein presiding.
court is now in session.
i sentence each of the defendants to five years in the oregon state pokey, plus 5000 hours of community service, with the stipulation that all 5000 hours (each) must be spent educating the oregon public about proper child care, etc.
i ALSO sentence the preacherman who told these kinda young folks that they could just pray away the illness to the state max of six years, plus 6000 hours of public service in the same field as the offense.
having spent a year in then-governor bush's texas dept. of corrections way back when, i've got a smidgen of insight on this one.
teach the still-young couple a lesson, then let them teach 50,000 other young couples that lesson. it makes the most of a bad situation.
and DEFINITELY hold the preacher as liable as the parents...if there is a specific preacher involved. (i know some evangelicals who "congregate" in their own homes, with close relatives, and no actual trained leader.)
hey csm!
you like books, right?
do you have this one?
Talking about books and an insight into what we are up against, Yahoo News has a report today stating the Bible is the most popular book in the country. My vote would have been Catch-22, every bit as good as the Good Book, IMHO, but alas I am in the minority.
How do they define popularity, Bawdy? I would guess that in terms of copies sold and whether or not the book is on Americans' book shelves, then yes, the bible is probably the most popular. In terms of it actually being read and its owner knowing what the fuck the book says, then it is probably one of the least popular best selling books ever.
do you guys remember that ap ipsos poll (aug.21, 2007, i think) where they determined that liberals read more books per year than conservatives?
i'm having trouble unearthing the details of that poll, but i seem to remember part of the explanation being that conservatives read the bible more often, therefore limiting their time to read other, less important books.
no doubt, the bible is the best-selling book of all time. voting it most popular is like dubya listing jesus as his favorite philosopher -- meaningless.
if we were voting for the best book, i'd say anna karenina. (catch 22 was great, btw!).
but since we're talking most popular, i'd have 2 say "how to talk dirty and influence people," by lenny bruce. ;)
Thanks for the link, CoreyD, I hadn't seen that before. Love some of those illustrations!
My vote for favorite book goes to Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (RIP).
A close second is A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
As to the reading habits of liberals vs conservatives, you may be right. Remember that in a certain fairly large subset of conservatives there is a distrust of 'intelectuals', and therefore also of people who read a lot.
Fave book? I can't narrow it down to just one or two, sorry.
cat's cradle was great. one of a few vonnegut novels i never put away, even more dog-earred than my copy of slaughterhouse five.
i named karenina because it's the best piece of fiction i've read in the past few years. five yrs ago, i would've listed atlas shrugged, possibly the fountainhead (both by ayn rand). of course, of the 15 to 20 books i read per year (slow reader, remember?), only one or two are even fictional works.
"how 2 talk dirty and influence people" was a bit i stole from the movie pump up the volume. or was it heathers?...
I've never been able to slog through Ayn Rand. Every few years or so I pick up Atlas Shrugged and try to read it but never get very far. There is just something about the writing style that turns me off I guess. I know I'll try again though. Would The Fountainhead be a better place to start Corey?
if you think ayn's fiction is dense, ya oughta try her non-fiction! "the virtue of selfishness" is a great example. it is a short collection of essays on objectivism (a form or branch of libertarianism), but so dry and scholarly that it's nearly unreadable.
the fountainhead deals with the same issue, but from a fictional approach. slightly less dry and scholarly that way.
here's my "approach" 2 rand:
bust through the first 80-120 pages as quickly as possible. ayn tends to set up backstory and context FOREVER. i didn't actually feel a connection to either novels' characters until i got deeper into the book(s).
i think that's got to do with ayn rand being an intellectual first and an artist later. she tends 2 set up the intellectual underpinnings of a story for a long time. the actual characters don't catch fire until she's done setting the stage.
is the fountainhead easier 2 read? prolly. it is shorter, and less "grand". atlas shrugged was the full production, her magnum opus. the fountainhead, while dealing with the same themes, is less developed, a little more human, and maybe, more approachable.
bonus tip: try reviewing the "themes" section of the wikipedia write-up before tackling either book. i can't say that the rest of the write-up will help, but the themes section would have helped me when i read the books.
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