Study casts doubt on 'Meadow's law' of sudden child death

[emad]

The Independent
By Lyndsay Moss
31 December 2004


The vast majority of second infant deaths in families who have already suffered the sudden loss of a baby are down to natural causes, researchers said yesterday.

When the Court of Appeal quashed Angela Cannings' conviction for killing her two sons, hundreds of other cases of mothers accused of killing their babies were reviewed.

Now a study following thousands of families after a sudden unexpected and unexplained infant death has revealed that second deaths are not rare and eight out of 10 are most likely due to natural causes.

Mrs Cannings was cleared in December 2003, with the judges in the appeal case questioning the evidence given by paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow, who was also involved in other cases of mother's accused of murdering their babies.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=596990

AN ESTIMATED 200 UK children were adopted in the last 20 years after juries convicted their mothers/fathers of infanticide on spuruious medical evidence like that of Prof Meadow. Major UK campaign now under way for those kids to be handed back to their real parents, despite learned legal/medical/social services opinions saying this not in their interest....