As you may recall, last year Oregon eliminated it’s faith healing exemption in it’s child welfare laws. Under the new law Russel and Brandi Bellow have been charged with second degree manslaughter in the death of Brandi Bellow’s 16 year old son Austin. The boy died after being ill for a week and his parents didn’t take him to a doctor because of their religious beliefs. After they were indicted and and charged, their family posted bail, but now their 6 living children are in state custody and the parents are not allowed to have contact with them.

I am very glad this is happening, not that children are dying of easily treatable illnesses, but that parents are being held accountable for not providing adequate and necessary care for their children. It’s also nice to see that they have lost custody of their children since they have demonstrated they cannot be trusted. Now if only we could get Idaho’s exemption removed too.