Almost every year since 2015, Idaho children in a faith-healing sect have died of treatable conditions such as pneumonia and bacterial infections that turned to sepsis.
asserted
that → heal → sepsis
Former members of the Followers of Christ sect say parents are pressured to follow doctrine that forbids medical care.
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that → say → care
Those who stray risk shunning, they said.
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they → stray → ?
Oregon officials say after the state put legal boundaries on faith healing, more parents sought care for kids.
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parents → say → kids
Idaho, by contrast, has kept its faith-healing protections.
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Idaho → keep → protections
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
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who → write → story
A sheriff’s deputy opens the door of an Idaho farmhouse where a newborn baby has just died.
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baby → open → farmhouse
It’s almost 10 p.m., but the house is filled with adults and children seated anywhere they can find a spot: in reclining chairs, on the wood-stove hearth, on a chest of drawers.
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they → ’ → drawers
Some of the women hold babies in their laps.
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Some → hold → laps
“Sorry,” the deputy whispers as the door creaks.
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door → whisper → ?
No one greets the officer.
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one → greet → officer
No one speaks or even looks at anyone else, casting their eyes instead at the floor or around the room.
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one → speak → room
The deputy’s video camera records as he walks through the front room and past a bedroom door adorned with children’s artwork.
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he → record → artwork
Inside the bedroom, newborn Malachi’s mother sits in a recliner.
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mother → sit → recliner
His body lies in her lap, covered by a blue blanket.
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body → lie → blanket
As people in uniform ask Malachi’s parents about his birth, death and the two days in between, members of the family’s church — one of at least four Followers of Christ churches in Idaho — watch from folding chairs.
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members → ask → chairs
People come and go from the bedroom; one woman cradles a sleeping toddler.
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woman → come → toddler
Malachi died from pneumonia and bleeding lungs, according to an autopsy.
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Malachi → die → autopsy
It would have been treatable with antibiotics and newborn care in a hospital, said doctors who reviewed his death records for ProPublica.
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who → say → ProPublica
But Malachi’s parents belong to a faith-healing sect that doesn’t believe in medical care, based on a literal interpretation of several Bible verses.
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that → belong → verses
The Followers of Christ sect believes that God heals the faithful and that life and death must be left to God’s divine will.
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life → believe → will
When the coroner’s deputy lifted Malachi’s body to take it away that night in October 2023, there was no wailing or sobbing from his parents.
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deputy → lift → parents
Malachi’s father stood quietly as his mother hung her head and rested it in her hand.
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mother → stand → hand
A pediatrician who reviewed Malachi’s death records said a baby in his condition would have been gasping for air, turning blue from lack of oxygen and breathing so hard that the outline of his rib cage was visible.
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outline → review → cage
It was the first time the coroner and sheriff sent their deputies out to that house, to interview those parents and document the slow suffocation of a newborn boy.
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coroner → send → boy
The next time was 13 months later, when their next newborn, Liam, died from the same treatable condition that killed his brother Malachi.
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that → die → brother
In any Idaho household not steeped in faith-healing, those two deaths would be investigated as crimes.
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deaths → steep → crimes
Idaho law says parents can’t endanger, injure or neglect their children or let them suffer.
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them → say → children
To do so is a crime, and if the child dies as a result, the parent could be charged with manslaughter.
uncertain
parent → die → manslaughter
But those laws do not apply to children like Malachi and Liam.
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laws → apply → Malachi
Since the 1970s, Idaho’s criminal and civil laws have allowed parents who belong to Followers of Christ and the state’s other faith-healing sects to pray rather than seek medical care as their children die.
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children → allow → care
Lawmakers in Oregon, where the same religious groups exist, removed the state’s faith-healing exception to child abuse laws nearly 30 years ago, countering the overwhelming pressure former Followers say parents face from their congregations.
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parents → exist → congregations
More parents chose to get medical care for their children after the change, Oregon prosecutors and detectives said.
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prosecutors → choose → change
Idaho lawmakers have chosen a different path.
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lawmakers → choose → path
Since 2014, they have rejected repeated efforts to dial back Idaho’s faith-healing exemption, instead crafting legislation to further limit the role of anyone but a parent when it comes to children’s health and safety.
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it → reject → health
The state has codified “parental rights,” banned vaccine requirements in schools and childcare centers, and made parental consent a prerequisite for medical care of minors.
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consent → codify → minors
Legislators also have tried to narrow the definition of “medical neglect” for all families to only the most life-threatening situations, but those attempts have failed.
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attempts → try → situations
Local and national media outlets have reported on deaths among Followers of Christ families in Idaho.
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outlets → report → Idaho
ProPublica went further, enlisting the help of experts to determine which of those deaths could have been prevented.
uncertain
which → go → deaths
ProPublica gathered death records from coroners and police in five Idaho counties and shared them with more than a dozen pediatricians and birthing specialists.
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ProPublica → gather → pediatricians
…and 152 more, not listed.
The Aporia
