Abbreviation CHILD Type 501(c)(3 ) Field Child welfare | Formation 1983 Focus Child neglect | |
 | ||
Location Lexington, Kentucky, U.S. | ||
Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty (CHILD) is an American nonprofit membership organization that works to stop child abuse and neglect based on religious beliefs, cultural traditions, and quackery. CHILD opposes religious exemptions from child health and safety laws. These exemptions have been used as a defense in criminal cases when parents have withheld lifesaving medical care on religious grounds. These exemptions also have discouraged reporting and investigation of religion-based medical neglect of children and spawned many outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases and deaths. CHILD publicizes the ideological abuse and neglect of children, lobbies for equal protection laws for children, and files lawsuits and amicus curiae briefs in related cases.
Contents
CHILD was founded in 1983 by Rita and Douglas Swan after the death of their son, Matthew. When Matthew developed a high fever in 1977, several Christian Science practitioners, who claimed they were healing Matthew, persuaded the Swans not to seek medical treatment for him. After he had been ill for 12 days, the Swans did take Matthew to the hospital, but his illness had progressed too far and he died of spinal meningitis.
According to the National Association of Counsel for Children, which gave an award to Rita Swan for her efforts, "Due in large part to CHILD's efforts, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Dakota, Hawaii, and Oregon have removed laws which provided exemptions from prosecution to parents who fail to provide medical care for their sick children based on religion".
History
Rita and Douglas Swan founded CHILD as a legacy to their son, Matthew. In 1977 he became ill with bacterial meningitis. The Swans, Christian Scientists at the time, were persuaded by Christian Scientist practitioners – the religion's name for its spiritual healers – not to seek medical treatment for their son. When one of the practitioners said Matthew might have a broken bone, which Christian Scientists are allowed to go to a doctor for, the Swans took their baby to a hospital after he had been ill for 12 days, but his illness had progressed too far, and he died. Motivated by this tragedy, CHILD works to eliminate religious exemptions in child health and safety laws. Parents belonging to various religions, in particular Christian Science, have used these exemptions as legal defenses in criminal cases for failing to provide medical care for children who then died.
Following the death of their son, the Swans left the Christian Science Church, and in 1983, Rita Swan founded the nonprofit organization, Children's Healthcare is a Legal Duty (CHILD), and has worked "relentlessly" to publicize cases of religion-related child abuse and neglect. In 1998, Rita Swan and Seth Asser published a benchmark study in [[Pediatrics]']' that analyzed 140 child deaths in which medical treatment was withheld. This study showed that 90% of these children would have survived with routine medical care.
In 1996 Congress added to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act a provision that nothing in the act can "be construed as establishing a Federal requirement that a parent or legal guardian provide any medical service or treatment that is against the religious beliefs of the parent or legal guardian". CHILD has opposed this provision on several fronts. CHILD's work has led to the repeal of some or all religious exemptions to child neglect laws in Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Dakota, Hawaii, Oregon, Minnesota, Ohio, and Rhode Island. In 2009, CHILD lobbied successfully to remove provisions from the federal Affordable Care Act that would have provided government funding and mandated insurance coverage for faith healing that did not also includes medical care.
Mission and activities
CHILD'S mission is to end child abuse and religious-based medical neglect, cultural practices, or pseudoscience through public education, research, and a limited amount of lobbying to support laws that protect children against maltreatment. The organization also files lawsuits and amicus curiae briefs in related court cases.
CHILD supports:
Legal actions
The Swans filed a wrongful death suit against the Christian Science Church in 1980, but it was dismissed on First Amendment grounds, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear their case on appeal. In 2000, CHILD sued the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, Inc. v. Min De Parle), over federal healthcare monies being directed to Christian Science facilities and others that provide no medical treatment. The suit, alleging a violation of the establishment clause, was dismissed with summary judgment; on appeal, the judgment was upheld, and the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
Other legal cases include CHILD Inc. and Brown v. Deters challenging Ohio's religious defense to child endangerment and manslaughter (ORC 2919.22a) and CHILD Inc. v. Vladeck against the federal government's use of medicare and medicaid funds for Christian Science nursing.