Hi Rick,
 RT> From what I gather this "unique and often unrecognized" form of child
 RT> abuse is so rare that most of the online medical journals I've looked
 RT> at do not even mention it.  This sounds like the perfect application
 RT> for the Daubert criteria. ;)-~
I'm passing that information along to the attorney's representing two 
of the women going to trial next month.  I hope they can use the DAUBERT
criteria.
 RT> One question begging to be asked is how can someone be prosecuted for
 RT> having a diagnosed, and presumably psychiatric, disorder?
In one case, a woman who was a foster parent supposedly made up symptoms
that didn't exist in some of the children she took care of.  Keep in mind
that she took in "medically fragile" children, many of whom were terminally
ill.  Two of the foster children died - that's what terminal illness
usually does!  Another foster child had her colon removed by a doctor,
and the doctor then discovered afterwards that the colon was healthy and
should NOT have been removed at all.  The foster mother then got the 
blame for this (I have the newspaper articles to prove it).  The foster
mother threatened to take action against the doctor for putting the little
girl through this needless trauma, and boom, all of the sudden the foster
mother is diagnosed (sight unseen) as having Munchausen's Syndrome by
Proxy (MSbP) by a local expert who was writing a book on cases of MSbP.
Another thing to note is that none of her natural born children ever
had any medical problems growing up - only the "medically fragile" foster
children did.  
Another case involves a woman I know (and think very highly of).  She has
three children, all boys.  The first and third child were both premature.
The middle child was born at the correct time.  All three of the children
did have problems with keeping their food down as infants, but by the
time they reached about one year old, things were fine.  (To me this
suggests something heriditary.)  The first and third child were 
diagnosed as "failing to thrive" which simply means "not at the same
weight and height standards as other children born at the same time"
which would be typical for any baby that was born prematurely.  (My twins
would have been diagnosed as "failing to thrive" using that criteria.)
The doctor of the third child was adamant about the amount and type of
formula that the baby was to receive.  The mother even had a public 
health nurse that came in daily to verify that the baby was getting 
EXACTLY the amount of formula the doctor ordered.  The mother had tried
to get the doctor to increase and change the formula, but to no avail.
The baby eventually stopped gaining weight and was still having some
difficulty with keeping the formula down.  As fate would have it, the
same local expert decided that the mother had MSbP too, and added her
case into his book.  Children's Protective Services was called in (by
one of the doctors) and as soon as the baby was put in foster care, the
doctor ordered that the baby (then 11 months old) be put on solid food
(which he wouldn't let the mother do) and tripled the amount of formula 
the baby was to get!  The baby gained weight (I wonder why) and that 
was all the proof anyone needed.  
Both of these women go on trial next month.  How can they be prosecuted
for allegedly having this disorder?  Well, it involves needless medical 
intervention on children or induced illness in children, which is
child abuse.  It is interesting that neither of these women can fit into
the most widely accepted "profile" of women having MSbP.  Neither of
them have medical backgrounds, neither of them are from broken homes,
neither of them have extensive medical histories, neither of them
have bad marriages (both have very strong marriages and it is their
only marriage), and so on.  
 
 RT> My recent research has turned up quite a selection of "disorders" on
 RT> both sides of this issue.  Everything from "Cinderella complex" to this
 RT> rare syndrome.  It would appear that in the field of the social
 RT> sciences, there is a syndrome or disorder to describe each and every
 RT> unique condition, behavior, situation or circumstance into which a
 RT> human being may fall. 
 
Yeah, I know!  I fit the profile for MSbP more readily than these  
women do and I know I haven't done anything to be classified as having
MSbP.  It's really frightening, and I am very concerned for these two
women.  I am doing whatever I can to help them.
 
Val
~~~ ReneWave v1.00.wb2 (unregistered)
--- Mankind = One Family
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