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The boy will die, obviously, since the medical data apparently show that the "alternative medicine" doesn't work.

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The alert said they might also be with a Massachusetts man named Billy Best, who as a teenager in 1994 ran away from home to escape chemotherapy for cancer similar to Daniel's.

Best, who says he was cured by natural remedies, is supporting the family's effort to avoid chemo for Daniel but said this week he hasn't talked to the mother and son since they fled.

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This action, if not interrupted, WILL determine the childs death.

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This action, if not interrupted, WILL determine the childs death.

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I'm really wondering what would people say if he did not die or something, or at least, like it happened to Billy Best or so he claims.

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So the judge is just enforcing Minnesota laws. Or trying to. Which is actually his job as a judge.

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Then his surname is actually McGuyver and he has annihilated the lymphoma with a toothpick, bubblegum and a can of querosene.

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So the judge is just enforcing Minnesota laws. Or trying to. Which is actually his job as a judge.

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The US Constitution trumps any state law. The first right listed in the Bill of Rights is freedom of religion.

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The state is not to interfere with him practicing his religion.

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There is a lot of accomadation made for different religions in prisons. The case that an atheist offender took to the Supreme Court resulted in the SC delcaring atheism a religion an made the state extend atheists the same right to assembly, ect as other religious offenders got.

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The state is not to interfere with him practicing his religion.

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This is so not true.
If a religious practice is a against a law, of course the state has the right to interfere. As already mentioned, the US and any other modern state is NOT similar to countries like Iran.

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"Religion is a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every man and his Maker in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle." --Thomas Jefferson to Richard Rush, 1813.

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"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Miller, 1808. ME 11:428

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"Our Constitution... has not left the religion of its citizens under the power of its public functionaries, were it possible that any of these should consider a conquest over the consciences of men either attainable or applicable to any desirable purpose." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to New London Methodists, 1809. ME 16:332

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"The constitutional freedom of religion [is] the most inalienable and sacred of all human rights." --Thomas Jefferson: Virginia Board of Visitors Minutes, 1819. ME 19:416

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"I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines; nor of the religious societies, that the General Government should be invested with the power of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among them. Fasting and prayer are religious exercises. The enjoining them, an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times for these exercises and the objects proper for them according to their own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in their own hands where the Constitution has deposited it... Everyone must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Miller, 1808. ME 11:429

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"To suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own." --Thomas Jefferson: Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779. ME 2:302, Papers 2: 546

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"The rights [to religious freedom] are of the natural rights of mankind, and... if any act shall be... passed to repeal [an act granting those rights] or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right." --Thomas Jefferson: Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779. (*) ME 2:303, Papers 2:546

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"Among the most inestimable of our blessings, also, is that... of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable to His will; a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to John Thomas et al., 1807. ME 16:291

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"One of the amendments to the Constitution... expressly declares that 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,' thereby guarding in the same sentence and under the same words, the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press; insomuch that whatever violates either throws down the sanctuary which covers the others." --Thomas Jefferson: Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798. ME 17:382

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But you failed to answer to my example, didn't you?

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Freedom of religion is a right granted by God, not by the state according to the founding fathers. The state has no right to regulate religion in any way.

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I'm not sure about the laws in the US, but suicide is "forbidden" in germany for example.

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"God gave us...." is nothing but a subjective statement, because (as we already pointed out million times ino ther threads) no one KNOWS God exists, has ever spoken to God, so no one KNOWS what he had said. And only because there is a BOOK which tells us something about the time 2000 years ago, this doesn't mean anything of its contest is 1% true.

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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

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I may be an agnostic, but as far as I know, in the bible is stated something like "You shall not have other Gods besides me" (or similar). So what you are saying does only count for christians, but not for other religions?

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In my eyes, members of specific religions are not religious, but certifiable.

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And as far as I know, we already had some mass suicides in the US refering to Sects...Davidians anyone?....

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In fact there are many studies that show that many women have depression and severe mental problems after an abortion. Not to mention that abortion is murder.

Perhaps you are unaware that it is not only religios people who oppose abortion. Some atheists also oppose abortion.

Based on studies, I would say it is those who encourage abortions who doom girls from reaching their potential. Below is a portion of an article about a study conducted aby a pro-abortion doctor.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200601/ai_n17188342/

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But, this IS wrong. My realiable source highly disagrees with you.

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The pro-abortion lead author of the study. Prof. David Fergusson of Christchurch School of Medicine & Health Sciences in Christchurch, New Zealand, told Australia's ABC news, in summary, that abortion causes mental health problems, not the other way around, and women's backgrounds had nothing to do with it.

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There is an argument that crops up in political circles now and then, which I’ve never quite understood. I call it the “repentance” argument.

Generally what happens is that the lobbying group in question, often conservatives, drags forth some “sinner” who confesses their errant ways and tells the world that they regret their previous decisions and wish they could have avoided the “sin” into which they previously fell. This is usually accompanied with a call for legislation to outlaw the “sin” in question.

The assumption is that the confession from this repentant sinner is sufficient argument to justify the heavy hand of government stepping in and saving others from their sins as well.

Back when Ed Meese was trying hard to ban erotica there was something of a growth industry in repentant porn stars hitting the political sawdust trail and confessing their sins. Of course, instead of seeking absolution from some deity they were asking Big Brother to be their savior. I’ve always fond this tendency from Christians to be a rather odd one. They will argue that “Jesus has the power to save you from your sin” but when it comes down to it they lobby for Big Brother to save you from your sins instead. Apparently they have more faith in the heavy hand of the State than in any deity.

I’ve known lots of radically different people from very different walks of life, people who’ve made many different choices. I remember being amused that one adult film that hit the circuit featured three people I knew. Quite honestly it was god-awful and I couldn’t force myself to watch it. One of the performers told me of regrets for having made this decision. Another, apparently never had a single regret except perhaps on aesthetic grounds. The third, I’m not sure about, but I understand she still making a living in what we might call the sexual services industry. Even the one who expressed some regrets didn’t seem more than mildly displeased about the previous choices.

Women who had abortions, and later wished they hadn’t, are trotted forth by the Religious Right all the time. We are supposed to assume that the regrets expressed by this woman are justification for banning all choice in the matter for all other women. I can understand this sort of scenario having appeal to those who buy into the sinner/salvation theory of life. But precisely why they think this argument has any currency in the real world is beyond me.

Regrets are pretty much the norm for human beings. We all have them. But they aren’t proof of anything. I know that I’ve got some regrets but I doubt the Religious Right would appreciate them. I regret wasting years inside a fundamentalist Christian sect. I really, really regret that. I won’t say I didn’t learn anything, I did. I learned exactly how dangerous and deranged these people really are and why we should not let them set public policy. But I could have learned that lesson in far less painful ways.

I regret that I delayed having sex for the first time. I’m not sure if I delayed due to the negative influence of religion or because I was just terrified. Either way it is a regret I have. Others, no doubt, would regret not waiting. And the reason for this is obvious—people aren’t created with cookie cutters. We are individuals and each individual is genuinely different from each other individual.

Consider the following comments from someone I know fairly well who posed for some rather erotic images. “I did it because I needed to earn some money and this was quick and easy. At the time I didn’t give it much thought. Later I came to wonder if I had done the right thing and wished I hadn’t. But then even later I realized I was glad I did. Where I used to worry about the photos popping up at the most inconvenient time now I’d pay to have a set for myself, just because I think I looked damn good in them and would like to relive my youth. I’ve got only one of the photos and I’m glad I have it and glad I did it.”

So this person went from having no regrets, to having some regrets, to finally having no regrets, but actually appreciating it. This is why regrets don’t actually tell us anything about whether something should be legal or illegal. All my biggest regrets in life were about entirely legal choices I made which I now believe were the wrong ones. No one that I know of would make any of those choices illegal.

This is not to say that some regrets are not well earned. There are things that people do that ought to regret doing. But we can’t legislate on the basis of regrets. Regretting that you stole from an old woman, for instance, ought to be legislated against whether you regret it or not. Your regrets don’t matter, her rights do. It is legislated against because it violates the life, liberty or property of another person.

But when it is your life, your liberty and your property on the line, it is your decision. And no matter what your decision, or your regrets; it simply is no one else’s business.

Sinners walking down the aisle to find salvation may have some dramatic appeal to those inclined toward that sort of theatrics. But it really ought not have any place in the world of policy making.

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