LET THE KID DIE?

Should the law punish a parent who calls God instead of the doctor? How ’bout a parent who believes so fervently in New Age treatments, a child with a deadly disease is denied lifesaving medical care?

It’s the clash of belief and reality, and it’s dicey legal terrain.

On Friday, a Wisconsin jury convicted Leilani Neumann of reckless homicide for allowing her diabetic 11-year-old daughter to die. For two weeks, little Kara lay in bed nearly comatose while her parents refused to call a doctor. They sent a plea for emergency prayer to an online minister the night before Kara died.

“Basic medical care would have saved Kara’s life,” the prosecutor said. “Fluids and insulin were all that were needed.”

As that verdict sinks in, authorities are searching for Colleen and Daniel Hauser, mother and 13-year-old son. When a court-ordered X-ray showed a nasty tumor growing in Daniel’s chest, his mother fled with him from the family’s Sleepy Eye, Minn., home. Doctors say the cancer will probably kill young Daniel unless he receives chemotherapy.

Whose choice should this be?

Here in America, we grant parents a great deal of flexibility when it comes to raising their children, as we ought to. Parents have a right to their beliefs, no matter how wacky, and those beliefs necessarily affect the way they raise their kids.

But the courts have ruled consistently – and seem to be ruling still – that this doesn’t extend to allowing your children to die.

Kill yourself if you want to with your principled objections to medical care.

But if you decide to kill your children, the police could soon be at your door.

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS
1. Helena Williams just got a bigger one.
2. Steve Israel isn’t shopping for a new one any more.
3. Tom Suozzi would like to keep the one he has.
4. Dick Cheney still thinks he has one.
5 Tom Corbin says he’s hanging onto this one as long as he can.

HEY, BABY: Sweet SEXY Exotic Princess (Nassau), HOT N SEXY BLUE EYED BLONDE PLAYMATE BEST RATES (Merrick), Hottie Looking to Party (Midtown). Thank goodness Craigslist has gotten rid of all those nasty sex-for-hire ads.

SHHHH: Will Stephen Leatherman please be quiet? Yes, the director of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research (and self-appointed “Dr. Beach”) is correct: Southampton’s Coopers Beach and East Hampton’s Main Beach are among the top 10 beaches in America. But no, the locals don’t want the whole world to know. Just imagine the crowds. Next year, Doc, go flatter the Rockaways!

ASKED AND UNANSWERED: Didn’t we have a deal, Judge Spatt? You don’t edit photos, and we don’t rule from the bench! Which one of us is confused? . . . If Roger Corbin doesn’t like the perp walk, how’s he gonna feel about strolling through the prison gate (should such a fate befall the innocent-until-proven-guilty legislative tax cheat)? . . . How interim is Helena Williams’ interim MTA gig? . . . Of the 10,521 local governments Andrew Cuomo counts statewide, how many are on Long Island? 9,000 at least, right? . . . The Somali pirate, the African embassy bomber from Guantánamo – when did the Southern District of New York become America’s Hague, the place where international criminals are brought to justice? . . . Nabbed in 11 minutes? Was the speedy arrest extra embarrassing for ex-NYPD sergeant (and now alleged Roslyn Savings Bank robber) Thomas Feeney, being a former law enforcement professional and all? . . . Gosh, is this really an accident? Gas prices jumping just before Memorial Day – to an LI average of $2.52? . . . With the Nature Conservancy saying another 1,640 acres of open space was preserved on Long Island in 2008, has suburban sprawl finally met its match? That would be saying something . . . Come on, won’t somebody make a nice offer on Victoria Gotti and JP Morgan Chase’s “dilapidated manse” (so says luxist.com) in Old Westbury? The asking’s already down to $3.2 mil . . . How many of James Barbour’s 1988 Hofstra classmates predicted this? The beloved Broadway baritone (“Tale of Two Cities,” “Carousel,” “Beauty and The Beast”) returns to campus June 27 to benefit Hofstra graduate scholarships . . . A $4.9-billion loss-sharing agreement with the FDIC? Is that an acknowledgment that even LI banking whiz John Kanas can’t instantly revive Florida’s failed BankUnited? . . . Criminologists at the NYPD crime lab in Queens work hard on all their cases. But are they working extra hard on the case of NYPD criminologist Michelle Lee, 24, allegedly stabbed to death by ex-boyfriend Gary McGurk? . . . Miss Ed Lowe? He just turned up on Facebook. Go friend him there.

E-mail ellis@henican.com. Follow at twitter.com/henican.