Feb. 23, 2001 - A measure to protect seriously ill children from parents who withhold medical treatment cleared its toughest hurdle Thursday and is likely to become law, despite strong opposition from religious conservatives.
The House of Representatives narrowly passed House Bill 1286 after an emotional floor debate in which moderate and conservative Republicans lined up on opposite sides.
The House still must give the plan final consideration, as early as today. But if the bill survives final reading, observers predict it is likely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, and Gov. Bill Owens has said he would sign it into law.
The bill would make it easier under Colorado's child abuse statute to prosecute parents whose children become critically ill or die of a treatable illness when medical care is withheld. Specifically, the bill strikes a section of the state's child abuse law that allows "treatment by spiritual means through prayer."
Debate on the bill, sponsored by Rep. Kay Alexander, R-Montrose, and Sen. Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, came less than three weeks after a 13-year-old Mesa County girl died of complications from untreated diabetes. Amanda Bates was the daughter of members of General Assembly Church of the First Born, a church that believes in prayer rather than medicine to heal the sick.
Since 1974, 11 children of First Born members in Colorado have died or been stillborn after not receiving medical care.
In the days leading up to her death, Amanda Bates suffered from gangrene of the genitals and buttocks and swelling of the brain, Rep. Gayle Berry, R-Grand Junction, told House members.
"Her brain was swelling. It had no place to go but down the spinal cord," Berry said as some House members gasped.
Last week, the Mesa County coroner, Dr. Rob Kurtzman, ruled the death a homicide, opening the door to the possible prosecution of her parents.
Kurtzman told a House committee last week that the girl had died a slow death that was so painful he could not bear to give lawmakers the details during public testimony. Kurtzman said the girl's illness and subsequent massive infections would have been easy to recognize and were treatable. Former Christian Scientist Rita Swan, who earlier testified in favor the bill - saying her only son, Matthew, also died of a treatable disease, meningitis, because she trusted faith healers - supported Thursday's vote.
"I think it's very important that Colorado remove a religious defense to negligence and manslaughter," Swan said Thursday after the House vote. "Parents simply should not have a legal right to let children die regardless of their church's power."
Robert Doughtie, a Christian Science practitioner, was disappointed. Colorado Christian Scientists have come out in force against the bill.
"The message we're trying to get through is that there are millions of people in this country and around the world who practice spiritual healing," Doughtie said. "We're disappointed that society accepts only one possible solution to the healing of physical ills."
During floor debate, conservatives argued that the bill violated First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and would not stop parents who have strong beliefs about faith healing.
Rep. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, said Berry's story was an attempt to sway people's emotions.
He said that parents whose children die under such circumstances already are subject to prosecution. Using an analogy of a speed limit and a speeder who exceeds the limit, Mitchell said the answer is not to lower the speed limit but to prosecute the speeder.
"It's great the parents can be prosecuted," Berry retorted. "But the child is just as dead."
Rep. Lauri Clapp, R-Littleton, said Colorado already has effective laws against child abuse. Moreover, she said, social services can remove a sick child from a home.
But Democratic Rep. Jennifer Veiga of Denver responded: "Yes, if social services realizes a child is being harmed, social services can go in," Veiga said. "But often they don't recognize it until it's too late."