Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 11
In South Dakota there were 5 deaths from the End Time Ministries. Nationwide, the
Christian Science church had 28 deaths in the study.
Table 4
Religious groups with core beliefs of medical care avoidance
Organization Name Deaths
Church of the First Born 23
End Time Ministries 12
Faith Assembly 64
Faith Tabernacle 16
First Church of Christ, Scientist (Christian Science) 28
Other denominations (N=18), or unaffiliated 29
Total 172
Contacts with public agencies and mandated reporters of suspected child neglect were not
unusual among the children. Believing they were powerless in the face of the parents‘
wishes, some teachers ignored obvious symptoms and sent lessons home to bedridden
children. Some social workers and law enforcement officers allowed parents to decline
examinations of children reported to be ill. Public officials did not investigate the deaths of
some children.
One teenager asked teachers for help getting medical care for fainting spells, which she had
been refused at home. She ran away from home, but law enforcement returned her to the
custody of her father. She died 3 days later from a ruptured appendix.
A premature girl was delivered successfully at a hospital after her twin brother dies during a
home birth. Her mild respiratory distress syndrome resolved after 4 days of oxygen and
other minimally invasive support. She then developed progressively severe apneic spells.
The medical staff acquiesced to the parents‘ request not to transfer the child to a higher
level unit, despite an expected good prognosis. She died 2 days later when she could not
be resuscitated after a respiratory arrest.
Discussion
Calculations of overall incidence and mortality rates are not possible in this study as the
number of children in the groups sampled is not available and the cases were collected in a
nonrigorous manner. However, we think that the comparison with outcomes expected in
ordinary medical settings is a valid indicator that death and/or suffering were preventable in
virtually all of these children. These fatalities were not from esoteric entities but ordinary
ailments seen and treated routinely in community medical centers. Deaths from
dehydration, appendicitis, labor complications, antibiotic-sensitive bacterial infections,
vaccine-preventable disorders, or hemorrhagic disease of the newborn have a very low
frequency in the United States.
We suspect that many more fatalities have occurred during the study period than the cases
reported here. Deaths of children in faith-healing sects are often recorded as attributable to
natural causes and the contribution of neglect minimized or not investigated. During the
course of requesting documents for this study, we were told of deaths of children because of
religion-motivated medical neglect that were not previously known to us from public
records, newspapers, or other sources.

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 12
In many jurisdictions the classification of stillborn for an infant who has not taken a breath
preempted investigation of individuals involved in unattended deliveries, including
unlicensed midwives.
The legal requirements for care of infants who have begun breathing are also inadequate in
some states. One Indiana jury acquitted parents who let their 9-hour-old, preterm infant die
without medical help. The judge instructed the jury that state law did not require the
parents to obtain hospitalization until the infant had stopped breathing. Because survival
after out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest of infants is generally poor, such a law
effectively obviates a duty to provide care.
In 1983, the federal government removed religious exemptions from federal mandate,
allowing states to repeal them. The well-organized lobbying of exemption supporters,
however, has defeating most repeal efforts. Today only five states, Massachusetts,
Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Hawaii, have no exemptions either to civil abuse
and neglect charges or criminal charges. The law and politics of this issue are discussed
extensively elsewhere.9,10,19-21
Twenty-six percent of the deaths in this study have occurred since 1988, when the
American Academy of Pediatrics first called for elimination of religious exemption laws11 and
several years after the federal government began allowing repeal. Excluding the Faith
Assembly in which high reported maternal and child death rates declined after some
prosecutions and the death of its charismatic leaders, 35% of the fatalities in this sample
occurred from 1988 to 1995, 38% of the study period. Thus, it seems that this form of
preventable child mortality continues unchecked.
From our observation, religious exemption laws promote the assumption that parents have
the right to withhold necessary medical care from their children on religious grounds.
Mandated reporters have been discouraged from contacting authorities or are unaware of
their obligations and of means for state intervention. State agencies have sometimes
hesitated to act on reports they do receive. Whereas Christian Science church leaders
advise members in Britain and Canada to obey laws requiring medical care of sick children
23,24 ,they have advised US members that the laws allow them to withhold medical care.
Several Pentecostal clergy and parents have also claimed that exemption laws confer the
right to deny medical care to children.27
The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, National District
Attorneys Association, and National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse, among
others, have adopted policy statements calling for the complete repeal of religious
exemptions in child abuse and neglect and criminal statutes.28-31 The children of members
of faith-healing sects deserve the same protections under the law as other children have.
We believe that the repeal of exemption laws is a necessary step toward assuring such
protection and should be accomplished before hundreds more children suffer needlessly and
die prematurely.
References
1. Barrett S, Jarvis WT. The health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America. NY:
Prometheus Books. 1993
2. Levin JS. Religion and health: is there an association, is it valid, and is it causal? Soc Sci
Med. 1994 38:1475-1482
3. Marwick D. Should physicians prescribe prayer for health? Spiritual aspects of well-being
considered. JAMA. 1995 173: 1561-1562
4. Skolnick A. Christian Scientists claim healing efficacy equal if not superior to that of
medicine. JAMA. 1990 264:1379-1381