Spiritual Treatment Exemptions to Child Medical Neglect Laws: What We Outsiders Should Think

Abstract

When parents seek to direct their children's lives in ways otherwise prohibited by law, they are necessarily asking the State to make a decision about their children's lives. They are asking the State to change the rules for them, to give them greater power over children than other parents possess. There may be good reasons for doing so in some cases, but they must be reasons the State can endorse, from its perspective. This article explains why, from the State's perspective, there is no good reason to include spiritual treatment exemptions in medical neglect laws and there are strong reasons, grounded in the welfare and rights of children, not to include such exemptions.

Keywords: medical care, religious freedom, parents' rights, children's rights, child neglect, equal protection, minority culture, liberalism