Strollerderby : amish

Is It Neglect To Deny Surgery For Religious Reasons?

Kate Tuttle — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:35:00 GMT

Amish parents Gideon and Barbara Hershberger's son, Eli, now one and a half, was born with a heart defect that is fixable through surgery, but the couple's refusal to allow the invasive procedure may see them losing their son to the state. Claiming that the procedure violates their religious principles, the Amish family is fighting to retain the right to decide what treatment Eli gets, but the state of New York's Department of Social Services, charging neglect, is demanding that the boy be taken from them so that he can be operated on. A judge is expected to make the ruling on December 23.

Cases like this -- which would also include Christian Scientist parents and those who believe, as the Jehovah's Witnesses do, that blood transfusions are forbidden -- pit such strongly-held beliefs against one another that they are almost impossible to parse. On the one hand, the role of parents in making medical decisions for their children is a fundamental right most of us would fight for (particularly in our own families). But on the other, if a child can be saved by a procedure that is performed thousands of times a year, who on earth would let that child just die for his or her parents' religious beliefs?

More by this author:

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They Say: Autism is Linked to Watching TV

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:15:00 GMT

If you ever suspected it was no coincidence that the rise in childhood autism began around the same time as the advent of cable TV, a Cornell study shows you were on to something.

Researchers at Cornell University claim to have established a definite link between autism rates and TV watching among toddlers in California, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Oregon. Beginning in 1980, when cable TV brought Nickelodeon and other children’s programs into people’s homes, autism rates rose most sharply in counties with a high percentage of homes with cable. Specifically, the Cornell study found that “roughly 17 percent of the growth in autism in California and Pennsylvania during the 1970s and 1980s was due to the growth in cable television.”

And studying the amount of time children watched television based upon particularly rainy and snowy years in the Western states (bad weather is known to increase child TV watching), the researchers concluded that “just under 40 percent of autism diagnoses in the three states studied is the result of television watching.” Although it’s possible that these numbers reflect a relationship between autism and staying indoors (not watching TV), these numbers are much more conclusive than any of the numerous studies looking to establish a link between autism and vaccines.

The Cornell researchers are advancing no theories as to why increased television watching among toddlers causes an increased likelihood of an autism diagnosis, but it’s possible the link is related to the fact that the ability to process visual data develops in the first three years of life; children with autism exhibit abnormal activity in these areas of the brain.

It may be time that researchers turned their attention away from chemicals and genetic links in the search for a cure for autism. If something as simple as avoiding TeleTubbies and Baby Einstein could help lower autism rates, this is something every parent needs to know.

Photo: Cleveland Leader

Schools Tying Up Autistic Kids