ASIA/LAOS - Prayers for a dying woman: five Pastors charged with “abuse of medical profession”

Monday, 16 February 2015

ASIA/LAOS – Prayers for a dying woman: five Pastors charged with “abuse of medical profession”
Savannakhet (Agenzia Fides) – Five Christian pastors, leaders of five different communities, have been charged by the Law Court of Savannakhet province with the murder of a Christian woman named Chansee, whom they visited to offer comfort and prayers as she was nearing her death. Fides learned that the People’s Court based its ruling on article 82 of Laos penal law (“unlicensed professional medical care ”), declaring that with their attempts to cure the women, the five Christians had caused her death. The five men Kaithong, Puphet, Muk, Hasadee, and Tiang, arrested eight months ago by the provincial police, stood trial and the verdict was passed by the Court on 12 February.
According to NGO, Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF), Mrs Chansee had made an explicit request to the Pastors to come to her home to be with her during the last hours of her life. All the five Christians did was to pray to God to heal the woman. They made no use of medicine.
“The court sentence likened prayers for the sick to ‘abuse of medical profession’. To offer prayers for healing is a right, a religious right to freedom of belief, prayers do not involve medical treatment and therefore no medical license is necessary. This means that the sentence passed by the People’s Court has no juridical foundation” says HRWLRF. What is more, the woman died, not in the presence of the Pastors but later after she had been taken to hospital and treated by an authorised doctor.
The NGO urges the government of Laos and the Law Courts of the Province of Savannakhet to reconsider the sentence and to respect the religious freedom of Christians to pray for their members who are sick. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 16/2/2015)


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