Parents Sentenced After Newborn Dies Over Faith-Based Healing Choice

The parents of a newborn who died just days after her birth were sentenced in a Michigan court on June 11.

Joshua and Rachel Piland were ordered to serve a minimum of 20 years and as many as 45 years for the 2017 death of their daughter Abigail.

A jury found the couple guilty on counts of second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse in March following a three-week trial in Ingham County Circuit Court.

Abigail was just three-days old when she died from a high level of bilirubin in her brain, which the Pilands were told they should seek medical attention for shortly after their daughter’s birth when the midwife informed them the girl was jaundiced, according to a copy of a 2018 application for leave to file appeal obtained by PEOPLE.

Rachel gave birth at home on Feb. 6, 2017, without incident and Abigail appeared to be healthy at that time, her midwife Sandra McCurdy told police investigating the case.

The following day, however, McCurdy said she returned to find that Abigail’s skin was yellowing, for which McCurdy suggested the parents seek medical attention.

“The mother responded that they would not be seeking medical assistance because Abigail was fine and ‘God makes no mistakes,'” the application read.

By the following day, Abigail was dead. But instead of calling authorities or McCurdy, the Pilands instead called friends, who helped them pray for the baby to be “resurrected,” according to the application.

It was not until that night — when Rachel’s brother learned that his niece was dead — that anyone contacted authorities.

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Lansing Police Officer Stacey Browe said that the couple and their friends were still praying over the child when she arrived to question the parents, over nine hours after Abigail’s death.

In his first interview with police, Joshua stood behind his decision.

“The next day the father told police that he believes God will heal any medical issues and they will ‘walk it out,'” the application said.

“He stated that he would not have done anything different and ‘[i]f I had a choice between putting my daughter in the hands of men with the best of intentions and highest skill set in the world, I’d still put my daughter’s life in the hands of my Lord Savior Jesus Christ,'” the application continued.

An autopsy revealed that Abigail died from a high level of bilirubin in her brain, which the application points out would have manifested as jaundice.

The parents then told a member of Child Protective Services that “they chose to ‘believe in the word of God over the symptoms'” and were of the mind that “any medical condition that cannot be controlled with basic first aid is left in the hands of God,” according to the application.

At that point their two older children were removed from their custody. An attempt to reverse that order was dismissed when, two months later, Joshua said in court he would not abide by a court mandate that he not strike the children because “the children are being trained with physical discipline in obeying my words,” the application reads.

In the eight years since, Rachel gave birth two more times and had both children immediately removed from her custody, according to court records.

The couple was also convicted of manslaughter in 2019 in the same court for Abigail’s death, but the judge ruled that the case could be refiled on new charges shortly after that verdict,.

At trial the couple stood by their beliefs. In convicting them, the jury noted their concern that the two could cause another child’s death.

The Pilands remain in Ingham County Jail awaiting their prison assignments.