Law: Ample Penalty

Defiance of court is excused

It was a sad homecoming for Diana and Gerald Green. Almost two years ago, the Scituate, Mass., couple fled to Mexico, rather than obey a state court order to resume chemotherapy for their three-year-old son Chad, who suffered from leukemia. The Greens were determined to enroll Chad in a Tijuana clinic where he could receive laetrile, the controversial drug scorned by the medical establishment but touted by some cancer patients as a miracle worker. After nine months of treatment, Chad was dead. The Greens were left childless as well as homeless, with criminal and civil contempt charges pending against them in Plymouth, Mass.

They lived for a time with Diana's parents in Hastings, Neb. Two months ago, they quietly returned to New England. But the couple never developed a taste for fugitive life, and last week, with Bible in hand, they walked into a Plymouth courtroom to face the consequences of having disobeyed the court. Former Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Brant, who prosecuted the 1978 case, told the judge that had the couple complied with the chemotherapy order, Chad probably would be celebrating his fifth birthday this week.

For their part, the Greens, who plan to have more children, apologized for any "affront" to the court and asked forgiveness. Judge Francis Keating gave them just that. He found them guilty, but passed no sentence. Declaring the case "exceptional," Keating said: "Any further punishment beyond what has already been endured would certainly be unfair."