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The Death of Children by Faith-Based Medical Neglect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Richard A. Hughes
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Extract

According to one study, between 1975 and 1995, an estimated one hundred seventy-two (172) children died after their parents rejected medical care on religious grounds. Of these children, one hundred forty (140) suffered conditions for which survival rates exceeded ninety percent, if there had been timely medical intervention; and eighteen more could have survived at a rate exceeding fifty percent. Parents belonging to five churches that practice faith or spiritual healing methods accounted for eighty-three percent of these child deaths: the Indiana-based Faith Assembly, Christian Science Church, Church of the First Born in the Western states, Faith Tabernacle of Philadelphia, and the End Time Ministry of South Dakota. This survey did not include the seventy-eight child deaths reported in Oregon from 1955-98 or the twelve deaths in Idaho between 1980-98, resulting from faith healing practices that occurred within the Oregon-based Followers of Christ Church; of the Oregon children, probably twenty-one could have lived if they had received medical treatment, according to reporters from The Oregonian.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , 2005 , pp. 247 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2004

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