Woman Sues Church Over Son’s Death : Religion: The boy, 12, died of juvenile diabetes after being treated with prayer by Christian Science practitioners. Criminal charges are being considered.

James Andrew Wantland, 12, was suffering from diabetes, but he was treated with prayers, not insulin, according to his mother.

The La Habra boy died last year. Now the Orange County district attorney’s office is considering criminal charges against the boy’s father, grandmother and other members of the Church of Christ, Scientist in Orange County.

The boy’s mother, Gayle Quigley, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court, alleging that her ex-husband, James Richard Wantland, his mother and other church members rejected medical care for her son. The boy, known as Andrew, was living with his father when he became ill.

“I don’t object to a person using Christian Science healing methods to heal themselves,” said Santa Ana Heights lawyer Jim Wakefield, who is representing Quigley. “But I don’t believe anyone should practice this religion so as to endanger the life of a child.”

The boy’s grandmother, Ruth Ann Wantland, on Wednesday denied any wrongdoing during a brief interview. She said she and her family members did not know her grandson was gravely ill.

“He just fell ill and died,” said the grandmother, a Whittier resident. “If there was any indication he was ill, he would have been with the medical people.”

The father could not be reached Wednesday.

Michael Born, a spokesman for the Mother Church in Boston, declined to comment, saying church officials had not yet seen the lawsuit and were unaware of the criminal investigation.

He referred The Times to the church’s policy on spiritual healing, which states in part that “Christian Science teaches that material methods of healing turn us away from trusting entirely in God. . . . However, the choice between material and spiritual methods is always left to the individual or to the family, never to any church official.”

Deputy District Atty. Jim Tanizaki confirmed Wednesday that his office is investigating Andrew’s Dec. 20, 1992, death, but would not say when the review began and declined to talk about the case in any detail.

But he cited a 1988 California Supreme Court ruling that upheld the involuntary manslaughter conviction of a Sacramento woman who withheld medical treatment from her 4-year-old daughter, who was suffering from acute meningitis. The woman, a Christian Scientist, also was convicted of felony child endangerment.

According to Quigley’s lawsuit, Andrew, a seventh-grader at Rancho Starbuck School in La Habra, became ill sometime in the fall or winter of 1992. He received care from his grandmother and Christian Science practitioners.

The boy’s illness became progressively worse through the week of Dec. 14 until his death Dec. 20, the lawsuit states.

Included in Quigley’s lawsuit is a copy of her son’s death certificate, which states that Andrew died from complications caused by juvenile diabetes.