Religion, Law, and the Medical Neglect of Children in the United States, 1870–2000 by Lynne Curry

Abstract

Reviewed by: Religion, Law, and the Medical Neglect of Children in the United States, 1870–2000 by Lynne Curry Linda Bryder Religion, Law, and the Medical Neglect of Children in the United States, 1870–2000. By Lynne Curry. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. ix + 197 pp. Cloth €64.99, paper €46.99, e-book €39.58. In this important and fascinating study, Lynne Curry provides a wellresearched and lucid account of the conflicts between faith healing and medical science in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. As she explains, this was not just about conflict between doctors and religious healers; it also involved lawyers, coroners, judiciaries and juries, ordinary citizens, and, above all, children, especially those children who died. Curry tells many sad stories of parents who followed a particular faith and failed to seek conventional medical aid, leading to their child's death, when evidence suggests that in all probability medical intervention would have saved [End Page 479] them. A strength of Curry's study is its impartiality in telling that story; it does not blame or censure, but rather sets out the differing worldviews between conflicting sectors within the healing professions that led to these outcomes. Curry shows a good grasp of medical history and medical developments, especially in the field of pediatrics. The focus of the study is rightly on infectious diseases, the main killers of children in the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. Children were also, significantly, the beneficiaries of the most major medical advances at this time, owing to the new science of bacteriology of the late nineteenth century. We learn that, despite a Western-worldwide child welfare movement around the turn of the twentieth century that recognized the rights of children as separate from their parents, religious groups in many parts of America managed to get their rights to deny their children medical treatment accepted within the legislature. Religious exemptions from childhood immunizations form part of this story. This was facilitated by the uncertainties that continued to shackle Western medicine, despite medical developments, allowing space for alternative views to arise and thrive. Christian Scientists in particular argued that they did not neglect their sick children because they employed the services of metaphysical healers, trained and certified by their church. As Curry explains, many of those drawn to the new healing religions objected to scientific medicine's privileging of physical over spiritual concerns in child-rearing and also worried that the growing social influence of doctors and the state undermined parental authority in the home. In part, the new healing religions that emerged in the late nineteenth century were a reaction to the growing social and cultural dominance of science in society. Two particular religious movements are central to Curry's study. One was the Christian Science movement, set up in Massachusetts in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy, whose healing practices were taught through the Massachusetts Metaphysical College. Curry explains the philosophical basis of the movement, with its focus on spiritual rather than physical health. Eddy attacked conventional medicine, arguing, for instance, that the very act of attaching names to diseases such as diphtheria caused more harm than good by fostering fear. Christian Scientists even entered "sin and fear" as causes of death on official death certificates. The other major movement, established by divine healer John Alexander Dowie, presaged the emergence of Pentecostalism in the early twentieth century. Dowie argued that the origin of sickness lay in sin, and failed cures reflected insufficient faith on the part of the sufferer. He set up the International Divine Healing Association, which became the Christian Catholic Church in 1896. We learn that his "noisy crusade" against medical science in Chicago led to clashes [End Page 480] with local health authorities that brought attention to this movement far beyond that city. These spiritual healing movements contributed to broader libertarian movements, such as the National League for Medical Freedom, set up in 1910, which lobbied for individual autonomy and religious liberty overriding a child's right to receive medical attendance. The philosophies underpinning such movements, Curry argues, "proved to be a powerful, and persistent, counterargument [to medical intervention], one that lingered in the background of American life for the remainder...