A Philadelphia judge upheld murder charges Wednesday against a fundamentalist Christian couple in their 8-month-old son’s faith-healing death, saying things might be different if their toddler hadn’t died four years ago ‘under strikingly similar circumstances.’
Herbert and Catherine Schaible were still on probation after the 2009 death of their 2-year-old son Kent, for which they were convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
In April, Brandon Schable died of pneumonia after the couple decided to pray over the infant rather than take him in for medical care, according to their police statements. Their probation required them to seek immediate medical help if another child was sick or injured.
Prayed to death? A Philadelphia judge upheld murder charges Wednesday against Herbert and Catherine Schaible in the faith-healing death of their 8-month-old son‘They learned in the worst possible way…exactly what these symptoms could lead to in a child, especially a young child, if not medically cared for,’ Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner said, referring to the 2009 death of 2-year-old Kent Schaible. ‘We’ve been here before…under strikingly similar circumstances.’
Defense lawyer Bobby Hoof argued that Brandon died just three days after he came down with cold and flu symptoms and said there was no evidence of malice, as required for third-degree murder.
‘A reasonable parent probably would wait three days to take their child to a doctor,’ said Hoof.
Again? The Schaibles had previously been convicted of manslaughter in the 2009 death of their 2-year-old son under circumstances prosecutors called ‘eerily similar’
‘We tried to fight the devil, but in the end the devil won,’ the couple told homicide detectives investigating Brandon’s death, which could have been prevented with basic medical care.
Lerner seemed especially troubled that Brandon had increasingly labored breathing but still got no medical care.
He compared the current case to that of a parent who repeatedly gave a child peanut butter despite knowing of a potentially deadly allergy to it.
‘How many times do you have to do that again before a child dies, and a jury can infer legal malice?’ Lerner asked. ‘Is it a second time, or is that not enough? Is it a third time?’
About a dozen U.S. children die each year when parents turn to faith healing instead of medicine, typically from highly treatable problems, according to experts.
Faith-healing: First Century Gospel Church, where the parents are members, says using medicine is a sin
Murderers? Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, announces Herbert and Catherine Schaible would be charged with murder. The judge upheld the charge Wednesday, despite strong objection from the defenseThe Schaibles are third-generation members and former teachers at the First Century Gospel Church, a small, insular congregation in northeast Philadelphia.
‘We believe in divine healing, that Jesus…died on the cross to break the devil’s power,’ Herbert Schaible told homicide detectives after Brandon died.
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said the care was never given and decided to bring murder charges against the couple.
Their remaining seven children have been placed in foster care.
Extreme: Pastor Nelson Clark of the First Century Gospel Church tells followers to shun 21-century medicine for the power of prayer
‘He is incarcerated because of his faith,’ said lawyer Bobby Hoof in May when the couple was ordered held without bail. He described client Herbert Schaible’s mindset as resolute.
‘We believe in divine healing, that Jesus shed blood for our healing and that he died on the cross to break the devil’s power,’ Herbert Schaible told Philadelphia homicide detectives in April. Medicine, he said, ‘is against our religious beliefs.’
‘These are people who have been brought up in these communities; their beliefs are reinforced every day,’ said Shawn Francis Peters, a University of Wisconsin lecturer who has studied faith-healing deaths.
‘They’re not trained intellectually to question these doctrines, where the rest of us might engage in critical inquiry, weighing the benefits of medicine versus the benefits of prayer,’ he said.
Peters isn’t sure that courts have the means to prevent the problem, since such people don’t fear legal punishment, only Judgment Day. Some believe death ‘is a good outcome,’ given their belief in the afterlife, he said.
‘They don’t want to harm their children. They’re just in this particularly narrow – and very, very dangerous – way misguided about the potential of medical science,’ he said.
He believes that ‘empathetic’ intervention, through dialogue between church and public health educators, could help some ‘get to a point where they allow their beliefs and practices to evolve.’
But there’s also a risk that could backfire, and drive these communities further underground, he said.
Read more: Daily Mail
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