Parents Withhold Insulin for Religious Reasons
8-Year-Old Dies from Diabetes Complications
After Death, Parents Claim "She Is Just Sleeping"
In Australia, 14 members of a cult, including parents and siblings, as well as the cult leader, were sentenced to prison for causing the death of an 8-year-old girl who suffered from diabetes after stopping her insulin treatment in favor of natural healing.
On the 26th (local time), AFP and local Australian media reported that the Queensland Supreme Court in eastern Australia sentenced Elizabeth Rose Strous's father, Jason Strous, and mother, Kerry Strous, each to 14 years in prison for murder. Additionally, the court sentenced cult leader Brandon Stevens, who encouraged the parents to stop insulin treatment, to 13 years in prison, and 11 cult members including Elizabeth's brother, Jagger Strous, and Stevens's family members to prison terms ranging from 6 to 9 years each.
Fourteen members of a cult, including parents, siblings, and the leader, who insisted on natural healing in Australia and stopped insulin treatment for an 8-year-old girl with diabetes, causing her death, were collectively sentenced to prison for charges including negligent homicide. Photo by Pixabay
Elizabeth was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2019 and required daily insulin injections. However, her parents withheld insulin for several days, which ultimately led to diabetic ketoacidosis, a complication of diabetes, causing her death. The reason the parents stopped administering insulin was religious. They were devout followers of a cult called "The Saints," led by a man named Stevens. According to the cult's doctrine, they believed God would heal Elizabeth and opposed medical treatment. It is also known that when Elizabeth fell into a critical condition before her death, they did not call an ambulance but instead prayed and sang. In court, Jason Strous claimed even after Elizabeth's death that "Elizabeth was just sleeping and would be resurrected and seen again."
The court ruled that Elizabeth's parents and the cult leader Stevens, along with his followers, committed these acts driven by their belief in natural healing through faith, and handed down heavy sentences. Elizabeth's older sister, Jade Strous, said after the sentencing, "Justice has been served for Elizabeth." Having cut ties with the family, Jade expressed anger toward cult leader Brandon Stevens, saying, "The coercion and manipulation he used to control not only his own family but also ours exploited people's vulnerabilities in the most unforgivable and disgusting way." Judge Martin Burns, reading from a roughly 500-page verdict, stated, "It is clear that Elizabeth's parents loved their daughter, but their actions caused her death."
Meanwhile, in South Korea, there was also significant controversy over a naturalistic treatment method called "Anaki" (raising children without medicine). At that time, a Korean medicine doctor who advocated the Anaki treatment was ultimately convicted by the Supreme Court for manufacturing and selling unauthorized herbal digestive medicines and had his medical license revoked for two years. The naturalistic treatments promoted by this doctor included feeding charcoal powder to children with stomachaches, leaving children with high fevers untreated, nasal cleansing with soy sauce, and sun exposure for atopic dermatitis.
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