'We can't reunite thousands of mothers with children wrongly taken from them'

The Daily Telegraph ^ | January 18, 2004 | Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A heartbreaking example of what happens when we give government too much power.

[raybbr]

Charles Dickens: Alive and well!

[buffyt]

She added, however: "If a miscarriage of justice was made 10 or 15 years ago, what is in the child's interest now? If the adoption order was made on the back of Meadow's evidence and that was 10 years ago, what is in the real interest of the child? If they were taken as babies the only parent they know is the adopted one. It is incredibly difficult. It is a really tough call to make.

GIVE THE CHILDREN BACK TO THEIR PARENTS IF THE PARENTS WANT THEM BACK! I would want MY children back no matter what, and no matter when!!! Even 20 or 40 years from now, I would want to be reunited. They could let the kids decide.

[buffyt]

Ritalin doesn't turn the child into a drug induced stupor. My sons took it in elem. school and it barely calms them down a bit so they can study, read, sit still, focus. They are now 20 and 23 and very wonderful adults. They still have trouble concentrating in college, but Ritalin doesn't help adults much, so they don't take it anymore. They still ran, played, jumped, climbed trees, played sports, skiied, camped, hunted.......

[Trickyguy]

who believed in "spontaneous combustion".

Well, I guess you never read "Firestarter," now didja, huh?

[JZoback]

I'm glad your kids did O.K. on Ritalin.

I'm concerned about the 100's of thousands of other children who were given Ritalin who needed a little discipline and structure, but were drugged up to keep them quiet and subdued.

I have always wondered how in the world we educated literally millions of children for hundreds of years without the magic of drugs.

[CajunConservative]

Thanks for the link. Wish I had it 6 yrs. ago when CPS showed up at our house. A family member used CPS for revenge, falsely charging us with child abuse. After 4 months and 3 preliminary hearings, the charges were dropped. What a nightmare.

Yet when a child is truly in danger they do nothing to remove them from that environment. It's easier to harass a good parent than to actually do their job and go after truly abusive parents.

I have a cousin who should have had all her kids removed because their father is certifiably crazy (paranoid schizophrenic who won't take meds). He has done some horrific things to his kids and CPS has a very thick file on them but those kids still suffer. We do what we can to help them but they are still in real danger.

[XHogPilot]

Munchausen syndrome by proxy:

Mom Accused Of Injecting Human Waste Into Daughter
Test Results Show IV Fluid Contained Substance Consistent With Fecal Matter link
January 16, 2004

INDIANAPOLIS -- A 33-year-old mother is accused of repeatedly injecting human waste into her 21-month-old daughter to get attention, according to a report.
Tracie L. Fleck, 33, of Highland was being held Thursday in the Marion County Jail on $30,000 bond on 10 felony counts, including charges of aggravated battery and child neglect. Each count carries a penalty of from six to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Indianapolis police arrested Fleck after she was videotaped tampering with her 21-month-old daughter's IV tube in a room at the Riley Hospital for Children, according to a court affidavit.
Fleck may suffer from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a disorder in which people harm their own children in an attempt to get attention, said Dr. Roberta Hibbard, professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine and director of child protection programs at Riley.
Hospital officials became suspicious when the child continued to develop infections after receiving treatment. Doctors told police that Fleck had brought her daughter to the hospital 11 times beginning last March.
Two infectious-disease doctors traced the infection to the girl's IV tube and lab reports indicated the infection had resulted from fecal matter, according to court documents.
A hidden video camera was placed in the toddler's room on Jan. 8 and recorded Fleck placing a hand in her pocket and then both hands on the IV tube or pump, police said. It was not clear who put the camera in the room.
When questioned by investigators, Fleck said she had filled a syringe with baby formula, water and a drug being used to treat the child and twice used it to inject her daughter's IV, according to the affidavit.
Family and Social Services Administration spokesman Scott MacGregor said he could not comment on whether child protection workers were involved with the family.

[Bob Mc]

"Ritalin doesn't turn the child into a drug induced stupor. My sons took it in elem. school and it barely calms them down a bit so they can study, read, sit still, focus. They are now 20 and 23 and very wonderful adults. They still have trouble concentrating in college, but Ritalin doesn't help adults much, so they don't take it anymore."

Some of us worry that Ritalin prevents some children from learning to overcome their attention deficit problem as a child. We think it is a disability they have to learn to deal with, at an early age, or it will become a permanent problem for them as adults. Drugging them just puts the problem off, and possibly makes things worse for them as adults. I personally have some very very serious doubts about giving children drugs.

I hope yours do well, regards.

[pragmatic_asian]

"There will always be sick, evil people. And there will always be lawyers trying to get them off."

And there will also be lawyers trying to put them in prison but the real question is how do you really know if someone is guilty? As you said yourself, all it takes is for a kernal of truth for idiots to jump on as a huge problem in need of massive change. Criticism of lawyers definitely falls into that. Less than a percent of criminal defendants plead insanity and less than 1/10 of those actually succeed and nearly half of those are guilty pleas by reason of mental defect pleas (you did it because you were crazy). If there is a problem with our system for defining legal insanity, it's in allowing lay jurors making determination instead of some medical panel. So blame your fellow citizens for 'falling' for that defense. The really funny thing is that people who plead guilty by reason of mental defect often serve longer terms in mental facilities than they would have if they had just plead guilty straight-up.

[3catsanadog]

I have always wondered how in the world we educated literally millions of children for hundreds of years without the magic of drugs.

Because their parents were able to apply a good spanking if the kids didn't do their homework. And when homework was done, the kids were made to contribute to the upkeep of the household by doing chores.

Course that's considered child abuse now.

[JZoback]

True story: When one of my six children was in their early teens and we had a disagreement about what constitutes "rules" he had to follow, he threatened to call child services.

I called them on the phone and waited until they answered and handed the phone off to the young upstart. Called his bluff good.

That subject never came up again.

[workerbee]

As a parent myself, I can only imagine the nightmare it would be, but the reality is you can't turn back the life of these kids for the (understandable) satisfaction of the biological parents. You can't dismiss the fact that many of these kids know no other family but the adoptive one. As wrong as the circumstances of their adoptions were, it would only harm them worse to be yanked away from their "parents" and given to, from their perspective, total strangers. This only reinforces the need to be more vigilant about CPS cases and how they're handled. I do believe the biological parents should be allowed visits and perhaps eventual "co-custody" of the children, for some even a full return of the child esp. if he/she was past infancy when this tragedy occurred.

[cyborg]

Yes that's you but if you grew up with two loving parents, then someone said c'mon you're going home to your real family (complete strangers) how would you feel? I think they need to admit their screw up and make sure it doesn't happen again.

[Lazarus Starr]

Should have told your teen he had to make it to the phone before he could call them. ;)

-Laz