Brazil's Universal Church Is Ordered to Pay Damages for Promising the Cure for Aids

09/04/2015 - 09h07

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PAULA SPERB

FROM PORTO ALEGRE

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God will have to pay a $ 80,200 (R$ 300,000) compensation to a former believer and HIV patient who abandoned treatment, contaminated his wife and came to the brink of death weighing about 80 pounds (40 kg).

Edu Andrade/Folhapress When people do not agree to donate their goods, they say they have a bad spirit," says Lucas (fictitious name).

The court understood that the 36-year-old man born in the state of Rio Grande do Sul was convinced that he could be cured by believing in God and donating to the Church only.

"The ministers said the medicine is outdated; they showed testimonies from people who had been cured from cancer, Aids. When people do not agree to donate their goods, they say they have a bad spirit that is not allowing it," says Lucas (fictitious name).

It all started in 2005, when he found out that he had the virus and began treatment. Anguished, he started attending the worship of Universal Church under the advice of a neighbour.

Four years later, in September 2009, he stopped taking his medication and started having sex with his former wife without condom. The decision, he says, was a "sacrifice" proposed by a minister on behalf of the faith to achieve a cure.

On March 26, the Court of Rio Grande do Sul has determined that Universal Church paid Lucas a compensation for moral damages. The church can still appeal to the Superior Court (STJ).

"There's nothing against faith, but against the misuse of inducing people to abandon treatment in the name of faith," said rapporteur of the case judge Eugênio Facchin Neto to Folha.

Universal denied having requested that Lucas should abandon treatment, but reiterated that there is a "wide" scientific literature that supports the "biblical affirmation that faith helps - indeed - to cure diseases".

In a note sent to Folha, the church claims that Lucas was already carrying the HIV virus when he was greeted by Universal and that reports and testimonies attest that at that time he did not follow the therapeutic treatment as indicated.

In the document, the church says that "it always stresses the importance of strict compliance with the prescribed medical treatments."

Translated by SUGHEY RAMIREZ

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