Article January 26, 1924 Issue

The account in your issue of January 2 of the proceedings...

Clifford P. Smith, Committee on Publication for The Mother Church,

Boston Traveler

The account in your issue of January 2 of the proceedings in the district court at Framingham, Massachusetts, against Henry Moyse of Wayland, for providing Christian Science practice rather than medical practice for his fourteen-year-old boy, was mistaken in at least one important particular. The account entirely omitted the fact that the boy was attended by a physician for six weeks after his injury before a Christian Science practitioner was engaged. Your account read: "Both the boy and his father are devout Christian Scientists. Neither would call in a physician, but the boy was treated by a Christian Science reader." In fact, they were not avowed Christian Scientists when the accident occurred, and only decided to try Christian Science after medicine and surgery had been employed for six weeks or more.

Your account also omitted the testimony favorable to the efficacy of Christian Science, which was given by several witnesses, including a medical doctor. The testimony did not show that the boy's leg was broken. I question, also, whether the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has taken any position against the practice of Christian Science, my information being that the proceedings at Framingham originated in another manner. However this may be, Christian Scientists maintain that the laws of Massachusetts and of the United States recognize the rights of citizens, including parents, to choose between known systems of remedial care, and depend upon spiritual means for the preservation or restoration of health.

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