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- Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty (CHILD) is an American nonprofit membership organization that works to stop child abuse and neglect based on religious beliefs, cultural traditions, and quackery. CHILD opposes religious exemptions from child health and safety laws. These exemptions have been used as a defense in criminal cases when parents have withheld lifesaving medical care on religious grounds. These exemptions also have discouraged reporting and investigation of religion-based medical neglect of children and spawned many outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases and deaths. CHILD publicizes the ideological abuse and neglect of children, lobbies for equal protection laws for children, and files lawsuits and amicus curiae briefs in related cases. CHILD was founded in 1983 by Rita and Douglas Swan after the death of their son, Matthew. When Matthew developed a high fever in 1977, several Christian Science practitioners, who claimed they were healing Matthew, persuaded the Swans not to seek medical treatment for him. After he had been ill for 12 days, the Swans did take Matthew to the hospital, but his illness had progressed too far and he died of meningitis. According to the National Association of Counsel for Children, which gave an award to Rita Swan for her efforts, "Due in large part to CHILD's efforts, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Dakota, Hawaii, and Oregon have removed laws which provided exemptions from prosecution to parents who fail to provide medical care for their sick children based on religion". (en)
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