I feel awful for the original 12 jurors who had to endure the original trial and render judgment on two fellow humans. Also the paramedics, nurses, and doctors who were given the futile task of trying to save him and had to experience his death. Obviously, feeling for Ezekial should go without saying (though realistically, what are the rates for kids escaping the cults they are raised in? How sad that this incredibly cold and sterilized perspective is the only way to come anywhere near reconciling this situation).
I understand the law is imperfect (though much like democracy, it is simply superior to every other alternative), but it is really, really hard to feel like it has not failed here. I can understand how it's not legally 'murder', but it's difficult to see how it isn't 'failing to provide the necessities of life'.
Why does the viral vs. bacterial meningitis distinction even matter? The only way I could see that it might be relevant is if the Stephans arrived at a diagnosis of 'untreatable' themselves, and then acted accordingly (obviously not at all what happened here). If I shoot someone in the head and kill them, would it be okay if the coroner discovered they already had stage 4 cancer and probably only had a few weeks to live anyways?
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