Article August 17, 1899 Issue

Christian Science and the Law

The American Lawyer

We have read with considerable interest an account of the proceedings recently taken at a meeting of the Medico-Legal Association of New York City, held on the evening of June 21, at which was discussed the advisability of prohibiting the practice of so-called Christian Science healers.

It is needless to allude to the deep interest that the present subject must necessarily excite, roused as it has been by numerous cases alleged, and in some cases actually proven, to have occurred in which death has ensued due to a lack of proper medical attendance, the patient or his friends having been believers in Christian Science healing. But before we come to take up any such stringent remedy as legislative action, let us pause and consider.

In the first place, viewing Christian Science merely as a religion. there can, we believe, be scarcely any doubt of an absolute lack of authority resident in any law-making body in this country to declare unlawful the observance of the precepts of a particular cult where such precepts do not bring about results positively injurious to the community at large. A power to prohibit polygamy or polyandry no one may dispute nor, as one of the speakers stated, may the Salvation Army be permitted to disturb the quiet of the neighborhood with sound of cymbals or tambourine. It is a very far step from this, however, when we say to a man, "You must employ a member of such and such a medical school when you or one of your family is ill." To our mind, an act like this comes quite close to being an exceedingly dangerous infringement upon the liberty of the individual. It is an intensely wearisome platitude to say that the very best way to favor a religion is to persecute it, and it is very questionable whether anything would give quite the impetus to Christian Science that a few penalizing statutes would. Remember that this is not merely a question of a preference for some particular school of medicine. The followers of Mrs. Eddy have bound up their system of medicine with their religion; if one fails, the other must fail also.

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