IV. Why Reporting System and Court Orders Are Not Sufficient
Why the Abuse Reporting System and Court Orders are Not Sufficient to Protect the Life and Health of Children Whose Parents Rely on Spiritual Healing to the Exclusion of Medicine

The Christian Science Church and other proponents of religious exemption laws claim that the preservation of the religious exemption to the parental duty to provide children with necessary medical care does not unduly threaten the life of children. Supporters of religious exemptions argue that, under the Chapter 119 child abuse and neglect reporting system, a Massachusetts court can order necessary medical care for a seriously ill child through a temporary custody proceeding.

Why deprive parents of their right to practice their religion when, if it is absolutely necessary, a court can order necessary medical care?

The dangerous fallacy in this argument is that very often, seriously ill Christian Science children and children in other sects never come to the attention of a reporting authority until it is too late to prevent permanent disability or death.

Serious illness in Christian Science children often occurs completely outside the reporting system; unlike Jehovah's Witnesses who will use doctors and hospitals, Christian Science parents, in many cases, deny the effectiveness of medicine and will not take their children to doctors. A doctor or a hospital cannot request a court order for a child they are unaware of.

Christian Science utilizes its own organization of "spiritual healers" and (non-medical) "nurses" to treat childhood illnesses, including serious and life-threatening illnesses. These practitioners are not mandated reporters under the Massachusetts abuse and neglect reporting law. And in states where they are, practitioners may not report because they may not believe the child to be in danger. Christian Science healers and nurses have no training in medical diagnosis and treatment. In order to be accredited by the church, the spiritual healer must complete only a two-week class in non-physical, spiritual healing.

In fact, Christian Science healers believe that illness does not result from physical causes, but rather occurs because of lack of spiritual closeness to God. They believe that medical care can be an obstacle to health because it mistakenly treats the body rather than the spirit. The sole method of treatment is prayer and most often this treatment is conducted at a distance by telephone. Moreover,

The Christian Science Church tells its health care providers not to report contagious diseases to the state. It dissuades them from reporting cases of sick children deprived of medical care to protective services agencies.

Rita Swan, "The Law's Response When Religious Beliefs Against Medical Care Impact on Children," 1990

Because Christian Science healers and nurses cannot be expected to either identify or report serious childhood illness, Christian Science children are often insulated from the reporting system.

Additionally, school teachers and other public authorities cannot be counted on to make the reporting system work for seriously ill Christian Science children. The following is a direct quotation from the "Legal Rights and Obligation Handbook of Christian Science Parents in Massachusetts" published by the church in 1983: (This book was taken out of circulation only after it was criticized by the Twitchell Inquest judge.)

But it should be recognized that care of children is given special importance under Massachusetts laws relating to the protection and care of children, to the extent that the right of the parent can be usurped by court order…Thus, if a child is being given Christian Science treatment for an illness, inquiries made by school or other public officials as to care of the child should be answered with assurance that such child is being given good care and is having treatment for the illness. Otherwise, such official may incorrectly conclude that the child is a neglected child. In talking with such officials, a parent should stay clear of statements such as "belief of illness" or "claim or sickness" which may result in the official thinking that the illness is being ignored…

In other words, the Church is not encouraging its parents to help the reporting system work.

Massachusetts cannot place life and health of Christian Science children or the children of other religious sects exclusively in the hands of the reporting system. The tragic fact is that the reporting systems in Massachusetts and other states have been unable to prevent the deaths of Christian Science children and the children of other faith-healing sects. No doctor or court ever knew that Robyn Twitchell lay dying in his own home. In Florida, in 1986, six-year-old Amy Hermanson died of juvenile onset diabetes. Amy deteriorated over a six week period; a report was made to Child Protective Services only shortly before her death and a hearing was concluded the hour before she died. Abuse reporting systems did not intervene to prevent the deaths of three Christian Science children in 1984 of bacterial meningitis in California.

The combination of the religious exemption law and the Massachusetts Chapter 119 reporting system seriously exacerbates the threat to the lives and health of children whose parents choose to rely exclusively on spiritual healing. Because the religious exemption appears to allow parents to rely solely on prayer, parents may try to shield an ill child from the reporting system so that they may continue to avoid medical care.

The religious exemption creates an incentive for parents to keep a child's illness hidden, thereby avoiding necessary medical assessment. This contradiction fails to meet a proper moral and practical standard for guiding responsible parental behavior and ensuring protection.

The Massachusetts religious exemption law must be repealed so that parents who utilize spiritual healing will have the same legal duty as all other parents to provide their seriously ill children with necessary medical care. Children's lives cannot be left totally dependent on Protective Services action. Parents have the legal custody of children and, therefore, have 24-hour a day responsibility for them. As such, they have far more awareness of their children's illnesses than do mandatory reporters. The state cannot and should not be in the position of having to continually monitor the health of Christian Science children or the children of other faith-healing sects.

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