Homeopathic Anti-Vaxx Parents Convicted in Son’s Death Pen Predictably Dumb Facebook Rant
Because sitting back and doing nothing while your child dies of meningitis is considered unacceptable in most civilized societies, a jury in Canada just convicted a mother and father of failing to provide for their 2-and-a-half-year-old son when he became deathly ill four years ago. Maybe you remember this story: David and Collet Stephan are religious fundamentalists who own a company called Truehope Nutritional Support, which sells natural, homeopathic remedies and nutritional supplements. Not surprisingly, the Stephans favor homeopathic remedies over ones that, you know, actually work, and when their son Ezekiel came down with meningitis they tried to cure him by feeding him “water with maple syrup, juice with frozen berries and finally a mixture of apple cider vinegar, horseradish root, hot peppers, mashed onion, garlic and ginger root.” This nonsense cocktail was supposed to boost his immunity. Needless to say, it didn’t work.
During their trial, the defense argued that the couple were loving parents who simply had no idea how sick their son was. They maintained that they figured he just had the flu. (Not that treating the flu with maple syrup would be any more successful.) Unfortunately for them, the prosecution produced a friend of the couple’s who’s a registered nurse and she explained that she did, in fact, warn the Stephans what was likely wrong with their child. The four-man, eight-woman jury voted to convict in less than 48 hours.