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ProPublica reports that four children in one Idaho Followers of Christ family died after their parents declined medical care for religious reasons. Canyon County’s sheriff said Idaho’s faith-healing exemption kept authorities from using ordinary neglect-based child-protection procedures in the case. The report also describes a narrow emergency court route and circumstances in which officials could act on evidence of another crime, so “could do nothing” does not mean every possible intervention was barred.
What happened to the four children?
According to ProPublica’s October 1, 2026, account, Emma Joyce was 3 when she died in August 2009 after several days of sickness and vomiting. Her sister Ava Joan died in July 2010 from a complication of untreated diabetes. A toddler brother died from the same complication less than two years later. Nine years after that, another sibling, a 4-year-old boy, died after weeks of similar symptoms.
The parents told officers they had not taken the children to a doctor because of their religion. ProPublica did not identify the parents or publish the children’s full names, citing their privacy. It identifies the family’s faith as the Followers of Christ and describes the sect’s belief, as reported by the outlet, that reliance on modern medicine represents a failure of faith in God. That description concerns the group and family in the reporting; it should not be generalized to other religious communities.
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Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue told ProPublica that Idaho’s exclusion of faith healing from the definition of neglect meant ordinary neglect-based child-protection law did not apply in this situation. He said deputies could not act absent evidence of a crime and did not notify child-welfare agencies. His account describes the limits he said officials faced in these cases; it is not a claim that authorities are powerless in every circumstance.
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Idaho Deputy Attorney General Mary Jo Beig described the exemption to a legislative work group in 2016: “If you were saying that your child broke their femur and you were praying to resolve this medical issue, the Department of Health and Welfare cannot say that you are a neglectful parent because you are not seeking medical treatment.”
The ProPublica account cites Idaho Code section 16-1627 as an emergency route for seeking treatment, but the official statute page was unavailable for independent verification. The legal description here therefore reflects the outlet’s account, not an independent reading of the current statutory text or its amendment history.
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Could a doctor or judge force treatment for a child?
The report says a doctor may ask a judge to order medical care when a child’s life would be greatly endangered without treatment. It also says the judge must consider any spiritual treatment the child is receiving. ProPublica describes this procedure as unusual, not as a routine substitute for neglect-based child-protection action.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteIn one example cited by the report, school staff noticed a child having as many as 13 seizures a day, prompting a doctor to seek a court order. The example illustrates the sort of serious medical emergency that brought the pathway into play; it does not establish that every concern or report automatically leads to a court hearing.
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How many children in Idaho died after faith healing?
A separate ProPublica investigation published August 25, 2026, reviewed death records collected from coroners and police in five Idaho counties. Pediatricians and birthing specialists who reviewed the records concluded that at least 15 babies and children from the sect died from illnesses that could have been successfully treated between 2015 and 2025. This is an investigative finding, not a statewide prevalence estimate.
The number has important limits: the review could not evaluate six additional deaths because records were incomplete or unavailable, and experts could not confidently determine whether medical care would have changed the outcome in four other cases. The investigation also found that at least five sets of parents had lost multiple children, a pattern it said had not previously been reported.
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Among the cases discussed in that broader reporting were two newborn siblings who died from pneumonia and bleeding in their lungs. Doctors who reviewed the records for ProPublica said hospital antibiotics and newborn care could have treated those conditions. These are the reviewing doctors’ assessments as reported by the outlet, not independent clinical findings presented here.
The reporting also discusses a baby who died from meconium aspiration syndrome. A 2009 study by Singh, Clark, Powers and colleagues examined NICU admissions in a de-identified dataset covering 1997–2007: it included 162,075 term neonates, of whom 7,518 (1.8%) had a meconium aspiration syndrome admission diagnosis; 88 (1.2% of that diagnosed group) died. Those figures describe that study’s NICU dataset, not all full-term births, and should not be read as an estimate of risk for a particular infant or family.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What changed in Oregon?
ProPublica’s comparison says Oregon began rolling back its faith-healing exemptions in 1999. Prosecutors and detectives told the outlet that more parents sought medical care after the change. That is their reported assessment; the reporting cited here does not quantify the change or establish a controlled causal estimate.
Former Oregon district attorney John Foote described the aim this way: “If you don’t do anything, kids are going to die.” The comparison is relevant to the policy debate, but the reporting does not supply enough verified current statutory text to support a detailed state-by-state legal comparison.
What do Idaho’s medical-neglect figures show?
Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare told ProPublica that it does not track how many medical-neglect reports involve faith healing. The department reported 318 investigations into medical-neglect reports over seven years; it found actual neglect in 28 cases, and 10 of those cases resulted in children being placed in state custody. These totals cover medical-neglect investigations generally, not faith-healing-specific reports, so they cannot show how often the exemption shaped an outcome.
Donahue told ProPublica, “There’s no doubt in my mind, they love their kids just like you or I would love them.” He also characterized the church’s influence as “They’re indoctrinated, they’re conditioned.” Those are the sheriff’s views as quoted in the report, not independently established descriptions of every family or member.
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