Last week, Marathon County Circuit Judge Greg Huber handed down a sentence to a Wausau couple convicted of homicide in 2009. Dale and Leilani Neumann each serve ten years on probation and 30 days in jail separately, every year for the next six years. The Neumanns will serve their sentences separately, so one parent can care for their other three children.

The Neumanns were convicted of second-degree homicide after their 11-year-old daughter Madeline Kara Neumann died due to complications with diabetes in 2008.  According to a story by the Green Bay Press Gazette, during the trial, Leilani Neumann claimed she believed Kara, as she was known, was struggling “spiritually” due to relationship issues Leilani Neumann and her husband were having with their former friends and business partners.

However, during the trial two doctors testified that Kara’s diabetes could have been easily treated, even moments leading up to her death.

“The Neumanns were well aware of the gravity of her illness and even sent out an email calling for emergency prayer,” said Marathon County Assistant District Attorney Lance Leonhard in the same story.

Choosing prayer over seeking medical attention is not rare.

In April of 2013, a Philadelphia couple lost their second child after opting for faith healing instead of medical treatment. Herbert and Catherine Schaible’s first son died in 2009, which resulted in both serving a ten-year probation sentence after both pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, according to a Fox 4 news report. While serving their sentence, their second son, only eight months old, died after suffering from diarrhea and breathing problems for days.

The premature deaths of children that were receiving prayer-based healing calls into question the rights of the courts and the rights of the child. When is it appropriate for government protective services to step in before violating our First Amendment right? Should there be an age where a minor can overrule their parent’s decision and request medical help?

In a Medical News article, Mary Anne McCaffree, a professor of neonatal-perinatal medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, said she intervened twice as a court “advocate” in the cases of two infants whose parents opted for religious healing.

“In our country, a child has rights to treatment,” she said in the article.

So why do some people believe in the power of prayer over medicine?

One’s faith in prayer stems from many beliefs, some of which include the belief in a higher power, guidance of scripture, power of miracles or doubts of medicine and technology. Churches such as Bethel Church in Redding, Calif. and websites like HealingHearld.org champion the power and ability of prayer with a number of testimonials on their websites. Healings vary from overcoming blindness, cancer, nerve damage and even expected death.

However, the majority of the testimonies on these particular sites are claims made by adults, about adults. What about the children?

The absence of child-focused testimonies can lead to a number of assumptions. A key question: Are children less likely to overcome their illnesses when faith healing is sought? Legally, minors cannot speak for themselves and so they must rely on their parents to make decisions for them. A parent should be doing everything they can to ensure the life of their child is a happy and full one. Parents in favor of faith healing, whose child could have been saved through medicine clearly do not have their best interest in mind. How these parents can watch their child deteriorate is incomprehensible. The sentences given to these parents do not come close to the lives these children lost. This should not be a debate about the freedom of religion. Children are dying and no one is there to save them.