Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1901 — DOCTORS FIGHT FAITH CURISTS [ARTICLE]

DOCTORS FIGHT FAITH CURISTS

Physicians Would Bar Eddy Follower* from Lite Insurance. Followers of Mrs. Mary G. Baker Eddy’s Christian Science faith in England have been challenged to battle by the medical fraternity and have accepted the challenge. Th’e doctors have begun an agitation in the.medical organ, Health, for the exclusion of faith curists from the benefits of life -insurance. The editor of* Health said: “We contend that people who deliberately deny themselves aids to longevity do not deserve to enjoy insurance aganist death. Life insurance companies refuse to take risks on miners, handlers of explosives and workers among dynamos and live wires. Why should they insure men who blindly reject medical science and intrust their their physical welfare to spiritual fanatics?” William N. Miller, a graduate of Mrs. Eddy's Boston school nnd head of the Christian Science Church in London, said:. “We heartily welcome this controversy. It would give us great pleasure to compare death certificates with the users of material agencies of healing. We are prepared to prove that the death rate among our followers is lower than among any other class of people. If they could induce the insurance companies to withdraw policies from our people they would undoubtedly frighten many, but on the whole we should emerge from the conflict vindicated and immensely strengthened.” The manager of one of the leading insurance companies said the companies hesitated to open the question p.?oouaded by the physicians.