Judge Steven Maurer sentenced Jeffrey and Marci Beagley to 16 months in prison this afternoon, calling the couple’s decision to not seek medical care for their 16-year-old son, Neil Beagley, a “crime that was a product of an unwillingness to respect the boundaries of freedom of religious expression.”

The Beagleys and Worthingtons are members of the Followers of Christ Church. Members of the Oregon City church have a lengthy history of child deaths from lack of medical care that influenced a 1999 law eliminating the religious freedom defense in cases involving the welfare of a child.

The Beagleys could face a maximum of 10 years in prison. Because the two have no prior convictions, the normal sentencing range under state sentencing guidelines would be 16 to 18 months in prison.

The Beagleys are the first Oregon parents convicted of homicide in the faith-healing death of a child since the state legislature eliminated spiritual treatment as a defense in such cases in 1999.

Prosecutors said Neil Beagley’s fate was sealed when he was born. His undetected medical condition caused urine to back up into his body and eventually destroyed his kidneys. He also was born into a family that believed using medical doctors showed a lack of faith in God.
The key question facing jurors is this: What would a reasonable person have done?

Nearly two weeks of testimony ended Thursday in the trial of Jeffrey and Marci Beagley, who are charged with criminally negligent homicide for failing to provide medical care to their 16-year-old son. Neil Beagley died in June 2008 of complications from a congenital urinary blockage that had never been treated.

The family belongs to the Followers of Christ, an Oregon City church that relies on faith healing rather than medical care.

Jeff Beagley told an Oregon City jury Wednesday that despite staying home from work the June 2008 day his 16-year-old son died, spending the whole night before awake talking to Neil, carrying his ill son to the bathroom and family members coming to pray over Neil, he didn’t think Neil’s condition was bad enough that his life was in danger.

The family is part of the Oregon City-based Followers of Christ Church, which believes in faith healing and has seen more than 80 children laid to rest in its Oregon City church cemetery. [video]

A doctor considered an expert in the disease that killed a 16-year-old Oregon City boy told a jury Thursday that the boy could have been saved right up to the last minute if his faith-healing parents had sought medical care.

The parents are members of the Followers of Christ Church and reject doctors in favor of faith healing through prayer, anointing with oil and laying on hands.

The church has left a trail of dead children in its wake.

Jury selection in the faith-healing trial in the death of 16-year-old Neil Beagley took place this week, with the trial likely to begin on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

The parents are member of a church that has left a trail of dead children in its wake.

How can teenage children make informed decisions if they’ve never been to a doctor, have no understanding of their condition and have been raised to reject medical treatment? Do children have the right to refuse medical care?

How much responsibility do parents have for the health of teenage children?

These questions may be answered when yet again two members of the Followers of Christ Church cult will stand trial in the death of a child

A judge declined Monday to dismiss charges against Jeff and Marci Beagley of Oregon City, who are accused of criminally negligent homicide in the faith-healing death of their teenage son, Neil.

The Beagleys are members of a cult-like church that has left a trail of dead children in its wake.

About 300 children have died in the United States in the last 25 years after medical care was withheld on religious grounds, said Rita Swan, executive director of Children’s Health Care Is a Legal Duty, a group based in Iowa that advocates punishment for parents who do not seek medical help when their children need it.

Criminal codes in 30 states, including Wisconsin, provide some form of protection for practitioners of faith healing in cases of child neglect and other matters, protection that Ms. Swan’s group opposes.

The prosecution of an Oregon couple who allegedly tried to heal their dying son with prayer has focused attention on laws that, in some cases, allow parents to treat their children with faith.

Jeffrey Dean Beagley, 50, and Marci Rae Beagley, 46, pleaded not guilty on Friday to criminally negligent homicide charges in the death of their son, 16-year-old Neil Jeffrey Beagley.