The following information is provided to hopefully bring some reason to the debate of faith vs. medicine. Included are reported statistics with links provided to the independent sources and full articles. In a twenty year span, 30 children were reported to have died at the hands of Christian Scientist practitioners. In 17 years, 65 known cases in Faith Assembly were discovered. It's reported that 78 children died in a little over 30 years in the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City, and an additional 12 children in Idaho in an affiliate congregation.
Meanwhile, it is reported that at least 98,000 people die each year due to medical errors, with many estimates vastly exceeding that figure. Here's just one example of deaths from appendicitis under medical care, in one year and the quote from this linked article
Fit young people are still dying of appendicitis because doctors sometimes fail to recognise the symptoms, according to an authoritative report into hospital deaths.
Fit young people are still dying of appendicitis because doctors sometimes fail to recognise the symptoms, according to an authoritative report into hospital deaths.
Twelve people with appendicitis died between April 2000 and March 2001 according to the latest survey of the National Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths (NCEPOD). "What is perhaps more alarming is that two of these were in previously fit young men and another was a child of three," says the report.
Deaths of Christian Science children between 1974 and 1994 from the following causes are in CHILD’s files: 5 of meningitis, 3 of pneumonia, 2 of appendicitis, 5 of diabetes, 2 of diphtheria, 1 of measles, 8 of cancer, 1 of septicemia, 1 of a kidney infection, 1 of a bowel obstruction, and 1 of heart disease.
Between 1973 and 1990, 65 Faith Assembly children are known to have died of treatable illnesses without medical care. In 1983 the Centers for Disease Control and the Indiana Board of Health conducted a study of Faith Assembly members, who shun all medical care including obstetrics. Pregnant women in Faith Assembly were 86 times more likely to die than other expectant mothers in Indiana. The mortality rate for Faith Assembly infants up to 28 days old was 270% higher. See Andrew Kaunitz, Craig Spence, et al., “Perinatal and maternal mortality in a religious group avoiding obstetrical care,” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 150 (Dec. 1, 1984):826-31.
The Oregonian reported that 78 children died between 1955 and 1998 in the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City, a church opposed to medical care. Twelve children died in an Idaho affiliate of the Followers of Christ. See Mark Larabee and Peter Sleeth, “Faith healing raises questions of the law’s duty-belief or life?,” The Oregonian (June 7, 1998):1.
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