In a story too insane and inhumane to comprehend, on July 13 a married couple in Nevada pleaded guilty to two counts of child neglect. With food and baby formula in the home, the couple’s two children, ages 2 and 11 months, were found malnourished and close to death after having gone without food for an undetermined period of time. Why did the couple, Michael and Iana Shaw, not feed their children? They were preoccupied playing the online video game, Dungeons & Dragons.

The Straw case was cracked open after a neighbor complained to police about a baby’s constant crying. An officer’s visit prompted social workers to investigate and ultimately take the children to the hospital where doctors said they were severely malnourished and were on the verge of death …

Michael Straw in September received a $50,000 inheritance which he spent by December on computer equipment and a large plasma television screen that displayed their video games, namely Dungeons & Dragons …

“Instead of providing health care or food for their children, they bought computer equipment.”

Other tidbits from the article:

• The 11-month-year-old girl, who weighed 6 pounds at birth, only weighed 10 pounds. When found, she could not lift her head or sit up because she had no muscle development. Her hair was matted with cat urine and she had an infection in her mouth. She was dehydrated to the point she could not cry or urinate.
• Her 2-year-old brother also was severely starved. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking.
• Neither child had received immunizations, and the 11-month-year-old girl had not received any medical care since her birth.
• When the officer responded to the neighbor’s complaint, the inside of the Straw’s apartment was filled with trash bags of garbage. Pathways had been made to navigate around the home.
• Both children are currently in foster care. They are said to be doing well and gaining weight.

Stories like this one make me ill.

The article refers to the couple’s obsession with video games as an “addiction.” Addiction is one step away from calling it a disease, and in this age of zero accountability we live in it’s only a matter of time before someone champions the “video game addiction is a disease” cause.

“They did not know what they were doing,” someone will shout. “They have a problem, we should be helping them instead of condemning them,” another will say.

An important issue, which is something not mentioned or alluded to anywhere in the article, is the good health of the couple:

They were not malnourished. They were not starving. They were not covered in their own filth. They were healthy, fat and happy.

This means they had to have taken breaks from the video game in order to get food and use the restroom. They were not lost in the game to the point they let themselves starve. They walked by their starving 2-year-old son. They heard the cries of their 11-month-year-old daughter. And they did nothing.

Both parents face a maximum 12-year sentence. The vindictive side of me thinks the sentencing should include their being spayed and neutered. They should be forced to sit in prison cells for days at a time without food while the prison guards play The Sims just a few feet away.

The other side of me thanks God for giving the children a better home where they can be loved and protected.