DESPITE PARENTS' RELIGION, AUTHORITIES CAN ACT TO SAVE CHILD FROM HARM, ILLNESS

BOISE Regardless of the religious beliefs of parents, authorities can act if necessary to save a child in risk of serious physical harm or grave illness, an attorney general's opinion says.

Laws and the Idaho Constitution give parents the right to practice religion as they want, said an opinion prepared for the Department of Health and Welfare's Division of Family and Children's Services. ''Nowhere in Idaho law does the religious exemption provide that a child cannot be medically treated if prayer is not effective and the child's life is endangered,'' it said.

''Idaho's religious exemption references do not limit either administrative or judicial action when medical treatment for children is deemed necessary.''

The agency also asked when state intervention is necessary for children who need treatment, but their parents feel prayer or other beliefs will provide the cure. The opinion said the state should act when a child is threatened by, or is in actual harm.

''The rules are neutral toward religious beliefs ...the determination of neglect will be made based on the threat of harm to the child, not upon the religious beliefs of the parents,'' the opinion said.

The opinion said courts in other states have ruled that the right to practice religion freely does not include the liberty to expose children to ill health or death.

''Parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow they are free, in identical circumstances, to make martyrs of their children before they have reached the age of full and legal discretion when they can make that choice for themselves,'' was the ruling in a Massachusetts case 49 years ago, the opinion said.