On April 28th of this year I wrote a bit about parenting and
the law. In that blog I wondered what the line was between the state becoming
too involved in how parents raise their children and not involved enough. I
ended that blog by saying that "It
may be a fine line between being an interfering neighbour and a legitimately
concerned citizen. But children do need protecting. While it may appear to be a
waste of money and scarce resources to investigate kids playing in a backyard -
I would rather live in a society where the occasional interfering neighbour
raises concerns than in a society where a 19 month old baby dies because no one
thought it was their job to express concern. "
For the last few weeks the Canadian media (Global,
CBC
etc.) have been reporting on the trial of parents living in Alberta who are
alleged to have let their son Alex die. Specifically the parents, because of
their faith, ignored the doctors' diagnoses that their son had diabetes and
consequently refused any treatment for that condition. While the original
diagnosis was made in B.C., the family after Alex had been hospitalized three
times and after social services became involved because his parents refused to
accept his diagnosis and treat him, moved to Alberta. At that point they appear
to have disappeared off of any child protection radar. When he died, Alex by
then fifteen, weighed only 37 pounds. His death is a tragedy not only because
someone needlessly died but because we, the community, did not do our job.
Alex was not alone in the world. There were people involved
with his family. Where were they? While it is perhaps understandable that his siblings,
indoctrinated and dominated by their parents who are members of a Romanian
Pentecostal Church, would have been too afraid or distrusting of authorities to
tell anyone, it is completely unfathomable to me that adults within that faith
community would ignore all of the signs that Alex was ill. No one in their
right mind would look at a 15 year old boy who weighed less than 50 pounds and
assume that he was well. Were there no neighbours who could have/should have
guessed that there was a teenage boy living in that house that no one saw? Why were
the doctors and the social service workers in BC who knew that the family were
not prepared to provide to Alex the level of care he required not more
assertive in demanding that their counter parts in Alberta find the family?
Clearly, if the facts of the case as presented are accurate,
the parents are guilty of homicide and should both lose access to all of their
other children as well as being incarcerated for a significant length of time.
But the faith community is culpable as well not only for their teachings that suggest
that faith can heal all illnesses - in spite of clearly visible evidence to the
contrary - but because they did nothing to save the life of a child. To suggest
that your faith is more important than the life of one individual makes that
person no different than one who kills because of their faith.
In terms of the medical profession, the school systems and
the child protection agencies, I can only hope that those professionals - as
over worked as they are, as underfunded in some areas as they are and as
confusing as the law can be as to jurisdiction and mandate - will study this
case so that they can insured that it can never happen again. Our society is
diminished every time a child dies because we have chosen to ignore that
possibility. Our communities become weaker when, because we don't want to
offend anyone, refuse to challenge beliefs that put some children at risk. It
is everyone's right to believe in whatever God, in whatever doctrine they
chose. It is however, my right and my obligation to say no when that doctrine
affects those who cannot speak out for themselves.
The saying "it takes a village to raise a child"
is often quoted. For Alex, that village was missing.
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