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+--- Thread: The death of Ezekiel Stephan: Quackery and antivaccine views go hand in hand (/thread-2325.html)
The death of Ezekiel Stephan: Quackery and antivaccine views go hand in hand - C C - Apr 27, 2016
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2016/04/27/the-death-of-ezekiel-stephan-quackery-and-antivaccine-views-go-hand-in-hand/
EXCERPT: [...] In spite of this horrific failure of parental duty, thanks to the deference courts have towards parental rights and, of course, religion, the Schaibles didn’t lose their surviving children, nor were they sentenced to prison. Instead, the Schaibles were sentenced to ten years’ probation [...] in other words, they promised to be good parents. That meant that four years later, in 2013, they were able to do the same thing again when their seven month old son Brandon Scott became ill in the same way. He, too, died of bacterial pneumonia because his parents chose prayer over antibiotics.
So when I learned of the Stephans’ trial, I wasn’t particularly optimistic that they would be convicted. I realize that Canada is a different country with a different legal system, but I know from past cases that it suffers from the same tendency that the US legal system does to defer to quackery-loving parents. [...] As I read about this case, I noticed something once again that I’ve seen time and time again. David and Collet Stephan are antivaccine as hell. They didn’t vaccinate their children, and, as I mentioned before, David Collet tried to blame his prosecution on a government plot to bring about universal forced vaccination. Unfortunately, antivaccine beliefs very frequently go hand-in-hand with the sort of quackery-filled beliefs held by people like the Stephans....