Description

By Michael J Powers

Waney Squier’s proposition paper points to the need for challenges to be made to scientific dogma,notwithstanding the personal professional costs of doing so. In the field of shaken baby syndrome (SBS), the importance of challenging an unproven hypothesis goes beyond academic interest.The determination of our liberty and whether our children should be taken away from us depends upon the reliability of medical expert opinion. Emotion fosters prejudice, destroys objectivityand undermines the scientific approach,leading to unsafe decisions.The General Medical Council’s principal purpose is to protect the public from bad doctors.It should not take sides where medical and scientific opinion is polarised.It is for the courts alone to control the admissibility and evidential weight to be placed upon expert evidence.

page: 150 – 158
Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation Volume 35, Issue 5
SKU: 350507