Couple to Face Trial in Son’s Death : Charges Against Christian Scientist Practitioner Dropped

Two Christian Scientists whose 17-month-old son died last year after they allegedly prayed for his recovery instead of seeking medical aid were ordered Wednesday to stand trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter and felony child endangering.

Santa Monica Municipal Judge Laurence D. Rubin dismissed similar charges against a Christian Science practitioner, a church-sanctioned healer who helped pray for the baby’s recovery.

Rubin said medical testimony given during a preliminary hearing last month established that the boy, who died of acute bacterial meningitis, was so ill by the time he was taken to the practitioner’s home that medical treatment could not have saved him. Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes that envelop the brain and spinal cord.

Eliot D. Glaser, 27, and his wife, Lise E., 26, will be arraigned March 13 in Santa Monica Superior Court. The Culver City couple refused to talk to reporters as they left the courtroom.

‘They Were Loving Parents’

Virginia L. Scott, 69, of Santa Monica, the practitioner, said outside court: “I’m of course grateful for the decision in my favor. But I’m extremely disappointed that these loving parents--and they were loving parents--that it should be necessary to put them through this ordeal.”

In his closing statement, Deputy Dist. Atty. David F. Wells had argued that Scott was well aware--as were the Glasers--of the seriousness of the boy’s symptoms--high fever, unfocused eyes and an inability to hold up his head--but that she nonetheless refused to summon medical help.

“What she was doing was engaging in human sacrifice, so to speak,” Wells said. “She was sacrificing a child for religious principles.”

The Glasers, according to testimony, took their son, Seth, to Scott’s home for prayer treatment about 1 p.m. last March 28, less than two hours before his death and a day after he came down with a fever.

Walking When Child Died

The couple were out taking a walk when their son died, police said.

The Christian Science Church, founded in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy, teaches that mental attitude, not medical treatment, is the key to health and healing.

Defense attorneys, in long briefs filed with the court, had argued for dismissal of the charges on these grounds:

--That the district attorney’s office, without relying on the statements that the Glasers and Scott made to police, could not show the probability that a crime had occurred. Rubin ruled, however, that two doctors’ descriptions of the typical symptoms of meningitis, coupled with the child’s dying in a private home instead of in a hospital, were enough to suggest criminal negligence.

--That the Glasers and Scott were improperly charged with child endangering and that their conduct actually fell under the jurisdiction of the state’s child neglect statute, which contains a qualified exception for parents who deny their children medical treatment for religious reasons. Rubin held that the three could rightfully be prosecuted for child endangering.

--That Scott should not be charged because the boy was hopelessly ill by the time he reached her home. Rubin agreed.