Fla. woman dies during religious fast

[darkstar3]

Evelyn Boyd told her husband, a preacher at a Pentecostal church in the city of Bartow, not to disturb her when she locked herself in the room Feb. 7 to fast and pray with only water to drink. Family members forced open the door March 5 and found her dead.

Sheriff Grady Judd told the St. Petersburg Times that deputies don’t expect to file charges, though the investigation continues. A precise cause of death has not been determined.

They don't intend to file charges? A person has died while members of her family could easily have prevented her death, and no one's going to file charges?

Edit: Link --> http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/1CA1CC87D8CD7928862576E5006143BE?OpenDocument

[KingFlorez]

1. I don't see how charges could be filed here

It was her choice and at this point, it can't be determined if any sort of intervention would have made a difference.

[darkstar3]

5. What?

it can't be determined if any sort of intervention would have made a difference.
You're fucking kidding me, right? Plus, have you never heard of "wrongful death"?

[KingFlorez]

20. No one could force her to stop

Granted, they could have tried to talk to her, but legally I don't see how they are responsible for her dying.

[darkstar3]

21. No, but when she passed out and her heart rate got thready,

had they actually been MONITORING her, they could have called for help. Help in the form of proper intravenous nutrition that would keep her ALIVE. Of course, this is only the very least they could have done.

[maxsolomon]

2. They forced the door open FOUR WEEKS LATER?

just as crazy as she was.

[Ian David]

9. How long does "The" Bible say Moses fasted for? n/t

[Demoiselle]

17. I don't remember...but

the Bible says Methuselah lived for 900 years, so I'm not inclined to take it as a guide in these matters.

[beyurslf]

3. They wated a month? Just plain nuts.

[tularetom]

4. She should be a candidate for a Darwin

And why did her family leave her in there for a month?

Unless she was so nuts they were glad to not have her around.

[charlie]

6. She fasted 4 times last year

One time for 40 days. Apparently, prayer fasts were her thing and her husband was used to it.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/research/polk-woman-who-died-alone-while-fasting-was-following-gods-call-husband/1079553

[darkstar3]

7. Which is damaging to the human body,

and that only means that her family, including her husband, had a responsibility to at least monitor her health during these fasts.

[Kali]

13. why?

presumably she was an adult

her decision, her "fault" - not theirs, especially if she's done it before

[darkstar3]

14. Would you allow

your significant other to waste away and die in silence when you could easily prevent it?

Whether it is legally actionable or not, this is horrible negligence and most certainly wrongful death.

[Kali]

18. if he was some kind of religious whack job, I probably would have left him already

so - yeah he would be on his own to make those kind of (stupid) decisions.

[charlie]

15. Oh yeah

They have some culpability, even if not legally. But you know that practices involving religion often become "special cases", with considerations that wouldn't be entertained if they weren't. If she had fasted to, say, purge accumulated toxins from her bones, their neighbors and law enforcement wouldn't have any problem calling them irresponsible gits. But getting between her and her God devotion by busting down the door? To check her health when she's surrendered her lot to the Almighty? That's a real pickle, innit?

[darkstar3]

16. It's really not a pickle.

In my life, I've known many people who participated in prayer and fasting. None of them required to be left completely alone for days or even weeks at a time. Also, you can't tell me that she expected death as a possible outcome of her religious observance.

Further, religious observances that are dangerous to the human body or to participants in general, even if that danger is simple long term health effects, are banned in this country already. Ask a Wiccan, a Rastafarian, or even a Muslim for that matter. There is a double standard at work here, where Christian observances get treated with kid gloves, while members of other, less established religions are forced to put away their ceremonial knives or ganga in order to adhere to the law.

[charlie]

23. No, no

I meant a pickle for the part of society that regards religious practices as special, uninfringable activity. Presumably, no one wanted her to die, or were indifferent to the possibility that she might die. Yet they let her die. Because they wouldn't presume to insert themselves between her and God. If she'd fasted for any other reason, her door would've been busted down earlier. The notion that what she was doing was sacrosanct paralyzed them. And now they're living with the unhappy result.

[skepticscott]

24. What's your legal basis for that?

The requirements for imposing criminal liability for failure to act are very strict, and as far as I know, do not extend to a case like this. If this had been a minor child that her parents had allowed not to eat and had ended up starving to death because they failed to monitor her health, then they could indeed be held criminally liable, but there is no such legal requirement when a competent adult is involved. Was there a moral responsibility here? Almost certainly. But that's completely different from a legal responsibility.

And btw, "wrongful death" is a civil, not a criminal action...you don't "file charges" in a wrongful death suit.

[darkstar3]

25. I don't know enough about law to state whether this was truthfully criminal negligence,

but I suspect that it was. That's why, above, I said "whether this is legally actionable or not."

I also think it's a damn good idea to try some legal action on this and see where it goes. Criminal negligence laws, from what I understand, do state that you cannot allow someone to die when you a) knew about their predicament and b) could easily have prevented it. I think this is also very similar to the wrongful death criteria, so if criminal action fails there's always the possibility of civil action. I think the legal gray area comes in here when you try to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that both a) and b) are true, but I think somebody should give it a shot.

I also think that legal action would bring to light the fact that we have a disparity here in America as to what possibly harmful religious practices are banned and what possibly harmful religious practices are allowed, as I said elsewhere.

[skepticscott]

26. That's not what criminal negligence is

It must involve a reckless or careless ACT which results in injury or death and which involves a disregard or indifference for the consequence. Allowing something to happen, without an actual act, does not qualify, except in very limited and specific situations, like the one I mentioned. If I see someone who can't swim fall into a swimming pool, I can stand by and let them drown, and the law can't touch me, no matter how easy it would have been for me to save them. On the other hand, if this was a case where a child were sick and their parents just prayed for them instead of taking them to the doctor, and they subsequently died, they could be held criminally liable (though in our religion-addled country, they rarely are), because they have a legally dictated duty to care for their children, and failure to act in that case is criminal.

[darkstar3]

27. Educational,

though disturbing.

If I see someone who can't swim fall into a swimming pool, I can stand by and let them drown, and the law can't touch me, no matter how easy it would have been for me to save them.
Deeeeeeeeeeesgusting.

[skepticscott]

28. Yes it is

from a moral standpoint (not that I would ever act that way), but there are very serious issues with imposing criminal liability for failure to act, and deciding how much right the government has to force people to endanger their own safety and risk their own lives to help someone else, lest they be charged as a criminal. What if it's not a swimming pool, but a lake, and the person is further out, and I'm not that good a swimmer, and there's no one else around. Should the law be able to force me to swim out and help them, at risk of my own life? How bad a swimmer do I have to be and how far out would they have to be before I'm no longer a felon for not having risked my own safety to help them? There are just too many sticky scenarios like that that legal scholars have bandied about for centuries, which is why our modern criminal law is based on the notion that, with very few exceptions, a crime has to involve an act, rather than a failure to act.

[Ian David]

10. Maybe he shoulda married David Blaine?

David Blaine lost 25% of body weight during glass box fast

Doctors responsible for treating the magician David Blaine following his 44 day fast in a suspended glass box said he lost 24.5kg - 25 per cent of his original body weight - and his body-mass index (body weight divided by the square of height in metres) dropped from 29.0 to 21.6 in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine published on 24 November 2005

Blaine was cared for by Jeremy Powell-Tuck, Professor of Clinical Nutrition, at Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry. He and colleague M�rta Korbonits, Reader in Endocrinology at the School, monitored the performance artist's progress following the stunt in London in October 2003.

For the first three days Blaine underwent re-feeding with a liquid meal and oral vitamin and mineral supplements. Blaine's metabolic status when he arrived at hospital immediately after the fast showed normal blood sugar levels but elevated levels of fatty acids, typical of long-term fasting.

He had vitamin B1 and B6 deficiency and these were replenished immediately after admission to hospital. Haemoconcentration was observed on the day Blaine was admitted and by day 10 there was a slight oedema.

More:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/34118.php

[Ian David]

8. By Florida standards, this isn't even close to being weird. n/t

[Lost-in-FL]

11. Heyyyy.... watch it!

There's sane people in FL. :hi:

[Kali]

12. callous, I know

but my reaction is "oh well"
choices

[frebrd]

19. The rest of the family is probably.......

as bat-shit crazy as she was.

Give that lady a Darwin Award!

:banghead:

[hlthe2b]

22. At the risk of being overly facetious...

Were her prayers answered? Given how "born again" Xians supposedly feel about death, perhaps they were? :shrug:

[ZombieHorde]

29. Sad. nt

[Iggo]

30. She was a grown woman. She starved herself to death.

The culprit has already been punished.

[DeSwiss]

31. From the online newspaper comments section:

"Yes officer, those claw marks have always been on the inside of that bedroom door..."