Earlier this week a Wisconsin judge refused to dismiss reckless homicide charges against two parents who stand accused of failing to seek medical care for their 11-year-old daughter as she died from untreated diabetes. Dale and Leilani Neumann told authorities they didn’t believe their daughter, Madeline, would die as they prayed for her healing. They reportedly considered her illness to be “a test of faith.” Prosecutors claim, however, that Madeline likely had symptoms for weeks before dying earlier this year after she became too weak to speak, eat, drink, or walk.

In his ruling, Marathon County Circuit Judge Vincent Howard stated that although the parents have the right to freely exercise their religious belief in prayer to cure illness, this right ”must yield to neutral, generally applied criminal statutes designed to protect public safety. Justice cannot give a free pass to anyone who claims that their religious beliefs blinded them to that which a reasonable person would be able to observe as a matter of fact.” A jury will now have to decide whether the parents reasonably knew that refusing to seek medical care for their daughter would endanger her life.