A Newborn Died in a Faith-Healing Sect. The State — and One Ex-Believer — Stepped in to Save Her Twin.
Evelyn’s family didn’t know then that Marshall’s choice to save his son had set him on a yearslong journey, one that would eventually lead him away from the only life he’d ever known.
Key points
- Another requested prayers: “She’s really bad.” (One person in the chat would later advise deleting the messages.) No one had called 911 as the gaps between each breath increased.
- Evelyn at the grave of her twin, Ginnifer The deputy medical examiner thought the family was being evasive.
- Her family assumed any custody arrangement would be temporary and suggested Marshall and Jennifer Phillips, a couple born and raised in the Followers.
As Tonsfeldt waited, one of the baby’s grandfathers approached him and blurted out an unexpected question: Would it make a difference if Ginnifer had a twin?
As early as 1901, a father in New York who believed in the “power of God to heal the sick through prayer” was prosecuted for failing to call a doctor for his young daughter who died from pneumonia.
Additional details
- Tonsfeldt gently collected the newborn and examined her in another room.
- Inside he found Sarah Mitchell in bed, her dead newborn in her arms.
- Since then, courts have repeatedly held — in cases where Christian Scientists refused treatment or Jehovah’s Witnesses declined blood transfusions — that adults are free to reject medical care for themselves.
- After Evelyn’s grandfather made it clear they weren’t going anywhere, Tonsfeldt summoned the police, who delivered an ultimatum: Take Evelyn to the hospital or they’d do it themselves.
- Jennifer and Marshall Phillips For more than a century, states have wrestled with how to address the deaths of children whose parents refuse them medical care for religious reasons.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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