A bill that would’ve redefined Idaho’s criminal child neglect laws died in committee Thursday morning.
House Bill 757 would’ve allowed a parent to be charged with child neglect only if they didn’t seek medical care for a life-threatening condition.
Anything less than a life-threatening condition and parents could have chosen to seek medical advice from anyone, even if that person has no medical training.
Rep. Lucas Cayler (R-Caldwell), who sponsored the bill, said a parent’s right to make medical decisions must be respected unless a child is in danger.
“These people are being charged with medical neglect based upon falsehoods,” Cayler said.
Kristine McCreery, a local parent who helped write the legislation, said her son was wrongfully taken from her because of false claims of medical neglect.
According to court records, two doctors believed McCreery was neglecting her then-15-year-old son after she brought him to the hospital over the course of a few months in late 2018 and early 2019.
The teenage boy’s weight fluctuated between 70 and 85 pounds during that time, while measuring five feet, two inches tall.
McCreery said the significant weight loss was due to the flu and that health care providers didn’t properly follow their own plan to have him gain weight.
Prosecutors eventually charged her and she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor injury to a child.
McCreery later sued the doctors, a social worker and a police detective, but both an Idaho District Court and the Idaho Supreme Court rejected her case.
Testimony on the bill ran roughly 20 minutes – far less than the past two days the House Health and Welfare Committee spent considering legislation to ban the drug Kratom.
The others who were allowed to testify Thursday opposed the bill, including Dr. Robert Crouch from Driggs.
Crouch said children are especially vulnerable to permanent harm from conditions even before they’re considered life-threatening.
“By restricting intervention to only the most extreme cases, this bill risks delaying care until irreversible damage has already occurred,” he said.
Rep. Dori Healey (R-Boise), a registered nurse, concurred.
“When you look at a child’s life, we’ve heard it a couple of times now, children, in a really technical word, crumple very quickly,” Healey said.
Leading the push to squash the measure, Healey said the bill would result in more child deaths in Idaho.
Committee members ultimately torpedoed the bill, which cannot be reconsidered this year in its current form.
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