Oregon faith healing church baby death investigated
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 10:35 AM PDT
OREGON CITY (AP) — The weekend death of a baby born at a home belonging to members of an Oregon church that shuns doctors and medical care in favor of faith healing is being investigated, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
Last year, Raylene and Carl Brent Worthington, both members of the Followers of Christ church in Oregon City, were charged with manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the death of their 15-month-old daughter from pneumonia and a blood infection.
The Worthingtons ignored serious symptoms that would have caused any reasonable parent to call a doctor or 911, prosecutors said.
The parents of the baby that was born Saturday and died early Sunday morning are also members of the 1,300-member church, law enforcement officials told The Oregonian.
A key question for Clackamas County sheriff’s investigators is whether the infant would have survived if the family had sought emergency medical assistance. If the parents were medically negligent, they could face criminal charges, the newspaper said.
Results of an autopsy was performed Sunday haven’t been released, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Strovink said.
A series of child deaths among members of the church prompted Oregon lawmakers in 1999 to eliminate a so-called ‘‘spiritual-healing defense’’ for certain cases of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment. The change in the law was put to a test this year when the Worthingtons were put on trial.
