The case of the teen who died after prayer failed to heal her cancer is back in the news. The would-be faith healing mother and her alleged lover and "spiritual father" of her daughter were charged with child neglect. Ironically, their lawyers are challenging a state law that would have protected them but didn't.

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It's pretty complicated. We have all sorts of laws protecting children until they are old enough to make decisions for themselves. The law protecting faith-healing parents, though, is apparently vague as to whether prayer becomes abuse if it doesn't work, and what exactly constitutes a "recognized church or religious denomination."

Personally, in this case I think the state should have stepped in. If I recall correctly, the daughter asked for and received medical attention before her parents turned to prayer. Even if a minor agrees with her parents to seek spiritual healing, it seems to me the state has a duty to intervene if the likely outcome is death. One can imagine all kinds of bizarre and abusive "cures" or "treatments" for all kinds of child behavior. The state would certainly get involved in those cases. I don't see how this is any different.

And a state law that allows parents to deny medical treatment for a serious, life-threatening illness is wrong and should be stricken from the books. The result in this case is Exhibit A. Perhaps there would have been a different outcome if no such law existed. And if that's the defense and it ends up getting alleged child abusers off the hook, maybe that's the price society pays to fix bad lawmaking.