Convictions of Faith Healing Parents Upheld

In State of Oregon v. Beagley, (OR App., June 19, 2013), the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the negligent homicide convictions of Jeffrey and Marci Beagley in the faith-healing death of their 16-year old son.  The Beagley's, members of the Followers of Christ Church that rejects medical care, prayed for their son rather than seeking medical attention for a congenital abnormality that led to kidney failure. (See prior posting.) The appeals court rejected defendants' arguments that the indictment did not state a crime; that the court's jury instructions were erroneous; and that the court erroneously denied their motion to exclude evidence regarding the faith-healing death of their granddaughter. The court held that defendants:

have presented us with no compelling reason now to conclude that parents do not have a legal obligation to provide needed life-sustaining medical care for their children, nor that parents' constitutional right freely to exercise their religion encompasses a right unreasonably to fail to meet that obligation.