Potentially yeah. In some states it can be charged as a misdemeanour with as little as probation or no jail time at all, especially for first offenders. Alabama treats criminally negligent homicide as a Class A misdemeanour with a maximum of one year imprisonment and/or $6,000 in fines in standard cases.

In many states it’s treated as a low to mid-level felony, and the penalty typically doesn’t exceed three years’ imprisonment. Some states go up to 10 years and Montana goes up to 20.

So while it can have consequences, it doesn’t necessarily have meaningful enough consequences depending on many factors.

Okay, here, I looked up the specifics. In Illinois, where I live, negligent homicide is a Class 2 Felony, with a maximum of 14 or 28 years, depending on case details. Source.

1st Degree Murder is 60 years. Source.

I’m not a lawyer, but instead a layman. That said, I argue that based on the law as cited, the parents had no lawful justification, and that their actions carried a high likelihood of death. Obviously a lawyer making such an argument in court would by necessity have to back that up, especially if they trotted out religious nonsense as a “lawful justification,” but that’s what they get paid for.

A person who kills an individual without lawful justification commits first degree murder if, in performing the acts which cause the death: (2) he or she knows that such acts create a strong probability of death or great bodily harm to that individual or another;