Article September 11, 1920 Issue

The article in the Republican entitled "Fine Scientist"...

F. W. Reed—Blackfoot, Idaho

The Idaho Republican

The article in the Republican entitled "Fine Scientist" calls forth the following comment:

Is it not, indeed, a strange law that makes a man a criminal if his child dies of diphtheria under Christian Science treatment, but would hold him guiltless if the child dies of the same disease under the care of a physician? It would seem that it would be necessary before arriving at a verdict of guilty in such a case to determine beyond question of a doubt that an absolutely sure cure for diphtheria was available by employing a physician. Yet to assume the possibility of such a decision is ridiculous in the extreme, for it is a well-known fact that deaths from this disease in large numbers have occurred in the past and are still occurring under medical treatment.

The father who has been branded a criminal because of relying upon a spiritual method of healing had just as much love for his daughter as the fathers of thousands of other children who have departed under the care of physicians. He procured the help which he believed to be the best, and yet he has been prosecuted, convicted of manslaughter, and fined for exercising his best judgment. It would seem from this that the crime, if such, was not in permitting the death of the child, but because the same took place under a system of healing not accepted by those responsible for the conviction. Such travesties on justice seldom occur in a free country, and it is to be hoped that the higher court to which the case has been appealed will not allow the conviction and sentence to stand.

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