At least three people in London with HIV have died after they stopped taking life saving drugs on the advice of their Evangelical Christian pastors.

Jesus saves?

The women died after attending churches in London where they were encouraged to stop taking the antiretroviral drugs in the belief that God would heal them, their friends and a leading HIV doctor said.

Jane Iwu, 48, from Newham, east London, described one case, saying: "I know of a friend who had been to a pastor. She told her to stop taking her medication - that God is a healer and has healed her."
"This lady believed it. She stopped taking her medication. She passed away," said Ms Iwu, who has HIV herself.

The sorry tale continues in depth, click the link above.

The US has a 'reckless endangerment' offence. It sounds like the kind of thing that we should have in the UK, and apply in cases like this.

Funnily enough, if the victims would have desperately wanted to die, the same church would doubtless not have permitted it.

So... Crass as it is. Have we come to the conclusion that praying to god for a cure = assisted suicide?

Wuffy wrote:So... Crass as it is. Have we come to the conclusion that praying to god for a cure = assisted suicide?

Well as praying = 0
I would phrase it more like;

convincing someone to stop taking medication with promises of magic cures = assisted suicide

On the bright side, they don't have to worry about HIV anymore.

-Quip

Despite being presented with examples like this over and over again, I still have a hard time comprehending that people can be so:
1) STUPID to believe God will cure them if told so by a religious nut.
2) GULLIBLE to believe God will cure them if told so by a religious nut.
3) BRAINWASHED to believe God will cure them if told so by a religious nut.

Maybe I just expect too much from people in general....

It is amazing to think that when the mortally sick is told by the pastor, god will heal you, they don't get very excited and reply, that's brilliant - who else has been fully cured of this disease?

People are idiots.

chairman bill wrote:The US has a 'reckless endangerment' offence. It sounds like the kind of thing that we should have in the UK, and apply in cases like this.

We have the tort of negligent misstatement.