A judge upheld murder charges Wednesday against a fundamentalist Christian couple in their infant's faith-healing death, saying things might be different if their toddler hadn't died four years ago "under strikingly similar circumstances."
Their probation in that case required Herbert and Catherine Schaible to seek immediate medical help if another child was sick or injured. But they instead prayed over 8-month-old son Brandon before he died of pneumonia in April, according to their police statements.
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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. At least one state, Oregon, explicitly banned faith healing as a murder defense after a series of deaths.
The 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, 45, told homicide detectives after Brandon died.
Their seven surviving children are now in foster care.
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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?"
The Schaibles' pastor, Nelson Clark, has said the couple lost their sons because of a "spiritual lack" in their lives. He has also faulted officials for trying to force his members into "the flawed medical system."
Murder Charge Stands for Pa. Faith-Healing Parents - ABC News
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