Article February 27, 1904 Issue

The Rights of the Child

C. R. Munro

The Toronto (Can.) Globe

To the Editor.

An editorial in The Globe a few days ago on Christian Science and the law, concluded as follows: "But we must recognize the separate rights of the child, and defend it when necessary, even against wrong by the parents. Recognizing the rights of a child to protection by the state, we must require that it receive, when sick, such medical aid as is endorsed by the general concensus of public opinion." Whether it is meant to refer to Christian Scientists or not, the above statements will be understood as pointing to them, and in justice to more than seven hundred Christian Scientists in Toronto, permit me to state that they are quite as careful in looking after the health of their children as any other class in the community, and obey the laws regarding contagion, quarantine, etc., as strictly as any others. That the children of Christian Scientists do not need any protection against their parents' negligence may be seen from the low mortality rate among them as compared with the rate among other children of the city. Because Christian Scientists do not believe in the efficacy of medicine as they used to, it must not, therefore, be argued that they are less careful of their own and their children's health, for, after trying medicines first, and afterwards Christian Science, they have found the latter to be more effective. The mortality rate among members of the Mother Church of Christian Science per year for the last two years has been about five per thousand, as compared with the rate of about eighteen per thousand for the city of Boston for the same period, and the rate of nearly fourteen per thousand for the Province of Ontario for the same period.

C. R. Munro.
The Toronto (Can.) Globe.

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