An exemption in Idaho law shields faith-healing parents from criminal prosecution for conduct that otherwise would be charged as neglect. It also keeps police and social workers from stepping in to protect a dead child’s surviving siblings.

The parents told officers that they hadn’t taken the four children who died to the doctor because of their religion, the Followers of Christ, which considers the use of modern medicine a sinful lapse of faith in God. And Idaho exempts parents from faith-healing sects like the Followers from the legal duty to give their children lifesaving medical care.

The sect had at least 15 avoidable deaths among children from 2015 through 2025, according to healthcare professionals who reviewed their records for ProPublica.

Among them were children in five families, including Emma Joyce’s, who had a combined total of two, three or four losses in this period or earlier.

  • DarkCloud
    11·
    27 days ago

    Technically if you believe they’re alive in the after life sense and doing stuff with God and co… Then they are “cured”, healthy, and doing just great.

    This is the problem with allowing religion any hint of belief or legitimacy - all of a sudden death isn’t the medical failure it used to be.