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10 Issues L. & Med. 321 (1994-1995)
Christian Science Healing of Minor Children: Spiritual Exemption Statutes, First Amendment Rights, and Fair Notice

handle is hein.journals/ilmed10 and id is 355 raw text is: Christian Science Healing of Minor Children: Spiritual Exemption Statutes, First Amendment Rights, and Fair Notice Janna C. Merrick, Ph.D.* In August 1993, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts overturned the manslaughter convictions of David and Ginger Twitchell in the death of their two-year-old son, Robyn.' This became the latest in a series of prosecutions and appealed verdicts involving Christian Science parents who relied solely on spiritual healing and whose children died of illnesses generally recognized as highly treatable with conventional medicine.2 *Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, University of South Florida at Sarasota; B.A., University Honors, University of Puget Sound, 1970; M.A., Ph.D., University of Washington, Seattle, 1973 and 1978, respectively. The author would like to thank CHILD, Inc., and the Church of Christ, Scientist, for providing important materials for this article. She would also like to thank RobertJ. Levy for his thoughtful comments on an earlier draft and Dr. Norman Fost, on whom she has relied for both clinical and bioethical analysis on numerous occasions. 'Commonwealth v. Twitchell, 617 N.E.2d 609, 619 (Mass. 1993). 2Eliot and Lise Glaser were tried and acquitted on charges of felony child endangerment and involuntary manslaughter for the March 28, 1984, death of their sixteen-month-old son from meningitis. Mark and Susan Rippberger were convicted of child endangerment on August 4, 1989, in the death of their eight-month-old daughter, Natalie, from meningitis. William and Christine Hermanson were convicted of child abuse and third-degree murder on April 18, 1989, after their seven-year-old daughter, Amy, died of juvenile diabetes. Their convictions were overturned by the Florida Supreme Court on July 2, 1992. See Hermanson v. State, 604 So. 2d 775, 783 (Fla. 1992). Laurie Walker was convicted of manslaughter on June 21, 1990, for the 1984 death of her four-year-old daughter from meningitis. Her conviction was upheld by the California Supreme Court. See Walker v. Superior Court, 763 P.2d 852, 873 (Cal. 1989), cert. denied 491 U.S. 905 (1989). David and Ginger Twitchell were convicted of manslaughter on July 4, 1990, after their son, Robyn, aged twenty-six

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