Many disease outbreaks tied to belief exemptions
Many children had to live in an iron lung before the polio vaccine was developed. Photo courtesy of the World Health Organization
Dear Visitors,
Rita and Doug Swan, the Founders of CHILD, Inc., are now deceased: Doug in 2018 and Rita in 2022. Below you will find their message to you written when the organization formally closed its doors in 2017.
is no longer an active tax-exempt charity. There is, however, a new successor non-profit organization called CHILD USA operating out of the University of Pennsylvania. It was formed with the original CHILD’s encouragement and support and is dedicated to ending child abuse and neglect through evidence-based research resulting in enlightened law and public policy.
This original CHILD website, www.childrenshealthcare.org, continues however as an archive for CHILD’s many endeavors from 1983 to 2017 to protect children from harmful religious and cultural practices—especially faith-based medical neglect—through public education, research, legal action, and a limited amount of lobbying. A second webpage, designed to educate the public about the situation in Idaho, IdahoChildren.org , will also continue to be available online for an indefinite period. It is our intention and hope that both sites will be valuable resources for current and future advocates working to establish healthcare for all children as a legal duty.
We are deeply grateful to those who supported our child advocacy work during the past 34 years.
Rita and Douglas Swan, Co-founders
