
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 19, 1993                   TAG: 9308190179
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS                                LENGTH: Short

PARENTS FOUND LIABLE FOR DEATH OF SON, 11

A jury awarded $5.2 million in damages Wednesday to the father of an 11-year-old diabetic whose Christian Scientist mother and stepfather tried to treat his illness with prayer instead of insulin.

The jury said the First Church of Christ, Scientist; the boy's mother, Kathleen McKown; and her husband, William, were directly responsible for the death of Ian Lundman.

The boy died of insulin deficiency in May 1989 at the McKowns' home in Independence, west of Minneapolis. Courts had ruled that the parents couldn't be prosecuted under criminal law.

The boy's biological father, Douglass Lundman, filed a civil lawsuit, arguing that Ian's diabetes was treatable through conventional medicine and his condition could have been stabilized up to two hours before his death.

The Christian Science Church teaches that prayer and Bible reading can cure illnesses, and that spiritual healing and medicine are incompatible.

- Associated Press

by CNB