Religion: Matters of Faith and Death

Courts move against parents who deny children medical care

Slumped in a chair, twelve-year-old her face Pamela Hamil with ton of La Follette, Tenn., asked a state judge to grant a seemingly suicidal wish: not to have medical treatment for her rare form of bone cancer. Doctors had testified that without chemotherapy and radiation treatment she would die within months. But Pamela's father Larry is a minister in the Church of God of the Union Assembly, a fundamentalist sect that does not permit its members to seek medical treatment and counsels them to rely instead on the power of prayer. Despite her dramatic plea seven months ago, the judge ordered hospital care to begin. Last week her doctor an nounced that there was no longer any evidence of the disease. But Pamela's father clings to his belief in the inefficacy of science. "The medi cine didn't do it," he insists. "It came through God."

Although the judge's ruling probably saved Pamela's life, it has again put the American legal system at odds with the Constitution's guarantee of religious free dom. State courts have routinely intervened against the antimedicine doctrines of some religious groups in or dering treatment for the chil dren of church members when death is imminent. Now states are beginning to bring charges of neglect or abuse against parents who endanger their children's lives by adhering to religious teachings.

In some Christian sects, opposition to medicine is sweeping: Herbert W. Armstrong, leader of the Worldwide Church of God, calls vaccines "monkey pus" and likens the use of physicians to worship of pagan gods. Christian Science urges its adherents to conquer illness by prayer, but allows them, if they insist, to consult doctors. Jehovah's Witnesses are forbidden blood transfusions but are allowed other medical procedures. Ironically, because Witnesses are permitted to consult doctors, they have been involved in many legal cases: if the ailing child of a church member requires a transfusion after being hospitalized, a court order is quickly obtained. At a Long Island hospital last week, a New York State judge heard late-night testimony from James and Theresa Tuomey, both Jehovah's Witnesses; then, over their objections, he ordered a lifesaving transfusion for their prematurely born, one-day-old daughter.

In many instances, though, courts do not hear about children's untreated illnesses until it is too late. In the past, states rarely charged parents with child neglect or abuse if religious beliefs were involved. Washington until recently also evaded the problem: in 1974, a federal child protection program required participating states to exempt from prosecution parents who refuse medical treatment for their children on religious grounds.