Article December 19, 1908 Issue

Is it to be supposed that Christian Science parents love...

Willard S. Mattox

Mt. Vernon (N. Y.) Argus

Is it to be supposed that Christian Science parents love their children less than do other parents, or that they would carelessly or wantonly subject them to a treatment which they did not believe could produce results? It is a legal axiom which is well understood, and universally acknowledged, that the parent is the natural guardian of his child. If then the parent selects materia medica as a remedy for disease, and his child dies, has the State any moral or legal right to arrest the father on a charge of neglect and manslaughter? Evidently the State does not conceive that it has such a right, because there has never been such a prosecution. If now the parent selects Christian Science, and the child dies, what has happened to give the State a right o charge the parent with the crime of manslaughter?

Has anything happened to the parent's inherent, natural, and constitutional right to govern his child? Can it be seriously argued that the neighbors know better than does the parent what ought to be done for the sick child, and that, consequently, their opinion or judgment should be consulted? Can it be seriously argued that the commonwealth or its legal representatives are better fitted than are the parents to select the form of treatment which shall be administered to a child? If the parent is not to be permitted to select the treatment for his child, who shall make the selection and where do the authority and the responsibility lie? The American form of government has, from the foundation of its Constitution, carefully eschewed anything that would seem to suggest paternalism. There has been a careful segregation of Church and State, and as the State has no theology, so it cannot possibly have a favorite school of medicine, and the right of the Christian Science parent to select for his child whatever treatment he is convinced is the best, remains unquestioned and inviolate.

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