LilMtnCbn
02-04-2004, 07:24 AM
http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/m-n/mcelroy/2004/mcelroy020404.htm
Did a False Condition Lead to False Abuse Charges?
February 4, 2004
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by Wendy McElroy
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------
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) is the psychiatric diagnosis by which a
parent -- almost always a mother -- is believed to intentionally harm or kill a
child in order to garner attention.
Diagnosing a mother as having MSBP is a tool often used by the state to remove
children from the care of the parent, terminate parental rights or in the case
of a child's death, charge the parent with murder. Now, due to a raging scandal
in Britain, that diagnosis is being discredited.
According to British newspapers, over the last decade, thousands of British
women who sought medical treatment for their children were in fact risking
being diagnosed with MSBP -- a diagnosis that could lead to the termination of
parental rights but also to imprisonment. Perhaps as many as tens of thousands
of children have been taken by the state from their parents on the basis of
"expert" testimony that the parent had MSBP.
But with MSBP's originator -- pediatrician Sir Roy Meadow -- under government
investigation, British authorities are being forced to re-examine cases dating
back to 1996. The Guardian comments: "The fallout from the Meadow affair is set
to go global. Thousands of families around the world who have had their
children taken into care are to demand their cases be re-examined."
In recent years, a slew of articles on MSBP have appeared in American medical
journals. An August, 2003, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin included an article
entitled "Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy: the importance of behavioral
artifacts." Some American doctors, such as Dr. Marc Feldman, advertise online
their availability to testify as expert witnesses in MSBP trials.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Feldman estimates there are more than 1,200
new cases of Munchausen's by Proxy annually in the United States. Organizations
like Mothers Against MSBP Accusations (MAMA) have sprung up in "response to the
fast growing number of false allegations" of MSBP. MAMA claims "families across
America, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand are being destroyed by
doctors and other professionals who make false and even malicious allegations
against desperate mothers of chronically/critically ill children."
The London Times points out that, this week, "the first anti-Munchausen's
conference will take place in Australia."
How will the furor impact North America? The best indication may be the
unfolding events across the Atlantic.
The scandal in Britain was sparked by a High Court review that revealed three
mothers had been wrongly accused based on his testimony. In one case, where a
family had lost two children to unexplained infant deaths, Meadow assessed the
odds of this happening at one-in-73 million; that figure sent the mother to
jail. In that case, Meadow's math was rejected by the Royal Statistical
Society, which issued a press release advising the government of a misconduct
of justice.
The three cases are not isolated. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has announced
an investigation into 258 other verdicts. With the High Court's reversal of
"Meadow's cases," the news magazine The Economist aptly stated in its Jan. 24
issue, "an entire medical and legal edifice collapsed." It is not merely
Meadow's credibility but also the research upon which MSBP rests -- research
inexplicably shredded by Meadow -- which is under attack.
The anxiety of anti-MSBP campaigners, who have been vocal since 1996, now
revolves around one question: what happens next?
Parents cry out "return our children!" But Margaret Hodge, the British minister
for children, says it may be wrong to do so. Admitting that tens of thousands
of children could be involved, Hodge maintains: "If an adoption order was made
.... 10 years ago, what is in the real interest of the child? ... [I]f the child
was adopted at birth the sensible thing to do is to let it stay."
At least three factors strongly contributed to this sustained debacle in
Britain.
First, medical advances and educational campaigns have caused a marked decrease
in "cot deaths" that is, unexplained deaths of babies in Britain. Over the last
decade, The Economist explained that the number of such deaths "halved ... and
has since fallen to around 300." But the fact that fewer babies die
mysteriously casts greater suspicion upon those who do. Someone must be to
blame.
Second, in both Britain and North America, there has been a great willingness
-- some would say a great eagerness -- to place legal blame upon parents for
any problem concerning children. Every bruise seems to raise the specter of
child abuse. The Economist reports, "As early as 1995, the Canadian government
was encouraging investigators in cot death cases to 'think dirty' a slogan
later picked up in other countries where infant deaths had fallen." Parents
were considered guilty until proven innocent.
As one Web site claims, "It's been estimated that as many as one in five cot
deaths is really ... Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy." (The "murdering" mother is
said to bask in widespread sympathy even as she poses a threat to her other
children.)
Third, there has been a lack of accountability.
The Guardian pointed to high-level negligence: Prime Minister Tony Blair and
key officials ignored warnings from "a leading child psychologist and former
government adviser" regarding several cases in which parents had been wrongly
separated from children because of MSBP accusations. The British child welfare
system seems to be systemically flawed.
The parallels between Britain and North America are too strong for the scandal
not to ripple over. Soon, courts over here may be reversing verdicts; officials
may be weighing whether to return children to parents who are strangers. The
facts of MSBP -- is it a valid psychiatric condition and, if so, what is the
prevalence? -- may be lost in the emotional explosion.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
Did a False Condition Lead to False Abuse Charges?
February 4, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
by Wendy McElroy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) is the psychiatric diagnosis by which a
parent -- almost always a mother -- is believed to intentionally harm or kill a
child in order to garner attention.
Diagnosing a mother as having MSBP is a tool often used by the state to remove
children from the care of the parent, terminate parental rights or in the case
of a child's death, charge the parent with murder. Now, due to a raging scandal
in Britain, that diagnosis is being discredited.
According to British newspapers, over the last decade, thousands of British
women who sought medical treatment for their children were in fact risking
being diagnosed with MSBP -- a diagnosis that could lead to the termination of
parental rights but also to imprisonment. Perhaps as many as tens of thousands
of children have been taken by the state from their parents on the basis of
"expert" testimony that the parent had MSBP.
But with MSBP's originator -- pediatrician Sir Roy Meadow -- under government
investigation, British authorities are being forced to re-examine cases dating
back to 1996. The Guardian comments: "The fallout from the Meadow affair is set
to go global. Thousands of families around the world who have had their
children taken into care are to demand their cases be re-examined."
In recent years, a slew of articles on MSBP have appeared in American medical
journals. An August, 2003, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin included an article
entitled "Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy: the importance of behavioral
artifacts." Some American doctors, such as Dr. Marc Feldman, advertise online
their availability to testify as expert witnesses in MSBP trials.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Feldman estimates there are more than 1,200
new cases of Munchausen's by Proxy annually in the United States. Organizations
like Mothers Against MSBP Accusations (MAMA) have sprung up in "response to the
fast growing number of false allegations" of MSBP. MAMA claims "families across
America, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand are being destroyed by
doctors and other professionals who make false and even malicious allegations
against desperate mothers of chronically/critically ill children."
The London Times points out that, this week, "the first anti-Munchausen's
conference will take place in Australia."
How will the furor impact North America? The best indication may be the
unfolding events across the Atlantic.
The scandal in Britain was sparked by a High Court review that revealed three
mothers had been wrongly accused based on his testimony. In one case, where a
family had lost two children to unexplained infant deaths, Meadow assessed the
odds of this happening at one-in-73 million; that figure sent the mother to
jail. In that case, Meadow's math was rejected by the Royal Statistical
Society, which issued a press release advising the government of a misconduct
of justice.
The three cases are not isolated. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has announced
an investigation into 258 other verdicts. With the High Court's reversal of
"Meadow's cases," the news magazine The Economist aptly stated in its Jan. 24
issue, "an entire medical and legal edifice collapsed." It is not merely
Meadow's credibility but also the research upon which MSBP rests -- research
inexplicably shredded by Meadow -- which is under attack.
The anxiety of anti-MSBP campaigners, who have been vocal since 1996, now
revolves around one question: what happens next?
Parents cry out "return our children!" But Margaret Hodge, the British minister
for children, says it may be wrong to do so. Admitting that tens of thousands
of children could be involved, Hodge maintains: "If an adoption order was made
.... 10 years ago, what is in the real interest of the child? ... [I]f the child
was adopted at birth the sensible thing to do is to let it stay."
At least three factors strongly contributed to this sustained debacle in
Britain.
First, medical advances and educational campaigns have caused a marked decrease
in "cot deaths" that is, unexplained deaths of babies in Britain. Over the last
decade, The Economist explained that the number of such deaths "halved ... and
has since fallen to around 300." But the fact that fewer babies die
mysteriously casts greater suspicion upon those who do. Someone must be to
blame.
Second, in both Britain and North America, there has been a great willingness
-- some would say a great eagerness -- to place legal blame upon parents for
any problem concerning children. Every bruise seems to raise the specter of
child abuse. The Economist reports, "As early as 1995, the Canadian government
was encouraging investigators in cot death cases to 'think dirty' a slogan
later picked up in other countries where infant deaths had fallen." Parents
were considered guilty until proven innocent.
As one Web site claims, "It's been estimated that as many as one in five cot
deaths is really ... Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy." (The "murdering" mother is
said to bask in widespread sympathy even as she poses a threat to her other
children.)
Third, there has been a lack of accountability.
The Guardian pointed to high-level negligence: Prime Minister Tony Blair and
key officials ignored warnings from "a leading child psychologist and former
government adviser" regarding several cases in which parents had been wrongly
separated from children because of MSBP accusations. The British child welfare
system seems to be systemically flawed.
The parallels between Britain and North America are too strong for the scandal
not to ripple over. Soon, courts over here may be reversing verdicts; officials
may be weighing whether to return children to parents who are strangers. The
facts of MSBP -- is it a valid psychiatric condition and, if so, what is the
prevalence? -- may be lost in the emotional explosion.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
