Parents Kill Thier Daughter by Choosing Prayer Over Real Medical Help

Parents Pick Prayer Over Docs; Girl Dies

2008-03-28 06:16:07
By ROBERT IMRIE Associated Press Writer

WESTON, Wis. (AP) — Police are investigating an 11-year-old girl's death from an undiagnosed, treatable form of diabetes after her parents chose to pray for her rather than take her to a doctor.

An autopsy showed Madeline Neumann died Sunday of diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that left too little insulin in her body, Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said.

She had probably been ill for about a month, suffering symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness, the chief said Wednesday, noting that he expects to complete the investigation by Friday and forward the results to the district attorney.

The girl's mother, Leilani Neumann, said that she and her family believe in the Bible and that healing comes from God, but that they do not belong to an organized religion or faith, are not fanatics and have nothing against doctors.

She insisted her youngest child, a wiry girl known to wear her straight brown hair in a ponytail, was in good health until recently.

"We just noticed a tiredness within the past two weeks," she said Wednesday. "And then just the day before and that day (she died), it suddenly just went to a more serious situation. We stayed fast in prayer then. We believed that she would recover. We saw signs that to us, it looked like she was recovering."

Her daughter — who hadn't seen a doctor since she got some shots as a 3-year-old, according to Vergin — had no fever and there was warmth in her body, she said.

The girl's father, Dale Neumann, a former police officer, said he started CPR "as soon as the breath of life left" his daughter's body.

Family members elsewhere called authorities to seek help for the girl.

"My sister-in-law, she's very religious, she believes in faith instead of doctors ...," the girl's aunt told a sheriff's dispatcher Sunday afternoon in a call from California. "And she called my mother-in-law today ... and she explained to us that she believes her daughter's in a coma now and she's relying on faith."

The dispatcher got more information from the caller and asked whether an ambulance should be sent.

"Please," the woman replied. "I mean, she's refusing. She's going to fight it. ... We've been trying to get her to take her to the hospital for a week, a few days now."

The aunt called back with more information on the family's location, emergency logs show. Family friends also made a 911 call from the home. Police and paramedics arrived within minutes and immediately called for an ambulance that took her to a hospital.

But less than an hour after authorities reached the home, Madeline — a bright student who left public school for home schooling this semester — was declared dead.

She is survived by her parents and three older siblings.

"We are remaining strong for our children," Leilani Neumann said. "Only our faith in God is giving us strength at this time."

The Neumanns said they moved from California to a modern, middle-class home in woodsy Weston, just outside Wassau in central Wisconsin, about two years ago to open a coffee shop and be closer to other relatives. A basketball hoop is set up in the driveway.

Leilani Neumann said she and her husband are not worried about the investigation because "our lives are in God's hands. We know we did not do anything criminal. We know we did the best for our daughter we knew how to do."

More Saudi Witches

I'm a little late posting this article. Its from a few months ago but I just ran across it. It is a different "witch" than the previous post.

Saudi executes Egyptian for practicing "witchcraft"

Fri 2 Nov 2007, 19:44 GMT

[-] Text [+]

RIYADH, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia executed on Friday an Egyptian man convicted of "sorcery", desecrating the Muslim holy book and adultery, the official news agency said.

The Saudi Press Agency said Mustafa Ibrahim was put to death in Riyadh in a controversial case which has drawn criticism from rights activists.

It said Ibrahim had been accused by another foreign resident of practicing magic in order to separate him from his wife and said evidence had been found in his home, including books on black magic, a candle with an incantation "to summon devils" and "foul-smelling herbs".

"He confessed to adultery with a woman and desecrating the Koran by placing it in the bathroom," the agency said.

Saudi media first reported the case in April, saying mosque worshippers had complained that a pharmacist in the northern desert town of Arar had placed copies of the Koran in washrooms. No accusation of adultery was mentioned at the time.

Clerics of Saudi Arabia's austere form of Islam, known as Wahhabism, take accusations of sorcery seriously and recently held a conference in Riyadh on how to combat it. Clerics dominate the legal system, acting as judges.

"This is a sad day for justice in Saudi Arabia. This execution is a clear indicator of the medieval character of the Saudi judicial system," said Ali al-Ahmed, a Washington-based rights activist of Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite Muslim minority.

"This man was murdered in cold blood while the Saudi king is in Europe being touted as a reformer ... This man was sentenced to death without any explicit evidence to prove what was perceived as violation of the law," he told Reuters.

Executions are usually carried out by public beheading with a sword for murder, rape, drug smuggling and armed robbery.

Saudi authorities say they apply strict Islamic law which ensures full rights for Muslims and non-Muslims. Families of victims have the right to waive the death sentence and claim financial compensation instead.

But in an apparent acknowledgement of problems, King Abdullah last month announced a reform of the court system which the state-run government Human Rights Commission said will include putting the penal code in writing.

Friday's execution takes the total number of executions this year to well over 120, compared with a record of 192 recorded by Reuters for all of 1995.

Hands Off Cain (www.handsoffcain.info), a Rome-based anti-death penalty group, said there were 119 executions in the first six months of 2007. Only around 38 people were executed in 2006.

Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch'

Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch'

By Heba Saleh BBC News

Many Saudi executions are beheadings by the sword in public places

Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft.

In a letter to King Abdullah, the rights group described the trial and conviction of Fawza Falih as a miscarriage of justice.

The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.

Among her accusers was a man who alleged she made him impotent.

Human Rights Watch said that Ms Falih had exhausted all her chances of appealing against her death sentence and she could only now be saved if King Abdullah intervened.

'Undefined' crime

The US-based group is asking the Saudi ruler to void Ms Falih's conviction and to bring charges against the religious police who detained her and are alleged to have mistreated her.

Its letter to King Abdullah says the woman was tried for the undefined crime of witchcraft and that her conviction was on the basis of the written statements of witnesses who said that she had bewitched them.

Human Rights Watch says the trial failed to meet the safeguards in the Saudi justice system.

The confession which the defendant was forced to fingerprint was not even read out to her, the group says.

Also Ms Falih and her representatives were not allowed to attend most of the hearings.

When an appeal court decided she should not be executed, the law courts imposed the death sentence again, arguing that it would be in the public interest.

Honor Killing in Texas

Two, beautiful, teen girls shot, killed in cold blood by their Muslim father. Read the article here from Jihad Watch.

Pope calls for continuous prayer to rid priesthood of paedophilia

OK, this has to be the silliest thing I have read in a while. When will people understand that it is a natural human urge to have sex? That urge is going to be satisfied in one way or another. So, assume you take a group of men that have taken an oath of celibacy. Does their urge go away? No. That natural urge is still there. And no amount of praying is going to help. It is going to be satisfied by some manner or another. Their only option is to satisfy it by some means that will likely go unknown by the public. Its not that they are pedophiles, not that they are gay, its that they are human. The only recourse they have is to prey (no pun intended) on defenseless individuals. And in most cases they happen to be children. Its just common sense. But then religion isn't about common sense is it? *NEWS FLASH* People are going to have sex. It is a human activity that is driven by biological and chemical processes. Its a fact. Religious fanatics can't seem to grasp this concept. Abstinence, it doesn't work with preventing teen pregnancy, so-called promise vows to wait till marriage, or aids in Africa, or other STD's. For those of you that would like to read this nonsense here is the article.