Denying Medical Treatment for Children

There’s been a fair amount of press coverage lately about situations where parents are refusing medical treatment for their kids based on religious reasons.  Parents are currently in court or on the run from authorities being accused of neglect.

In one case, a Wisconsin mom is on trial, charged with second degree homicide, after her 11-year-old daughter died from complications with childhood diabetes.  The mom said prayer would cure her daughter.

A Minnesota mom and her 13-year-old son, who has Hodgkin’s lymphoma, are on the run from law enforcers after a court ordered x-ray showed the boy’s tumors are growing.  The judge in the case says the boy’s parents are medically neglecting him.  The family belongs to a church that believes in natural healing and boy himself didn’t want the treatments.

These two cases aren’t isolated by any means, but they bring up a lot of questions.  Is this showing obedience to God or is it parental negligence?  Didn’t God create medical treatments so why not use them?  Or has God predetermined how long we’re all going to live and using modern medicine is ignoring God’s will for our lives?

It’s not an easy topic and for me there's no clear cut answer.  What do you say?