Inevitably journalist Christopher Booker writes at length in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph about the Baby Jayden case.
Inevitably he uses this tragic case to bolster his general
attack on the child protection system and the family courts with what seems to
me reckless talk of “‘experts’ paid to get it horribly wrong” and of “judges
who too readily accept it (experts' evidence)”.
But his blanket criticisms seem to offer no way forward.
What would he have medics do when they are faced with what they believe to be a
case of non-accidental injury? Go home and forget it?
There seems to be no question that all involved in this
tragic case acted in good faith. Medics may have got a difficult diagnosis
wrong, but no-one is party to a plot to rob caring families of their children.
Those who believed the case was one of non-accidental injury were genuine in
their belief, even if they were in error.
As I tried to argue in a previous post, cases like those of
Baby Jayden are particularly risky because everything turns on one piece of crucial
medical evidence. If it is true then urgent action is required to protect a
child; if it is false then there is no reason for any concern. So on the rare
occasion that the medics get it wrong, nothing stands in the way of injustice.
Rather than railing against the courts and the medical
profession, critics such as Christopher Booker would do better to try to
contribute ideas about how we could reduce the risks of getting it wrong.
We might begin by considering:
(1)
Whether such cases could be referred for second opinions
at a very early stage; and if necessary for third fourth and fifth opinions
before criminal charges are brought
(2)
Undertaking careful reviews of the diagnosis at
an early stage
(3)
Treating parents who find themselves in such
circumstances with greater respect and care
(4)
Devising better ways of maintaining high levels
of supervised contact between parents and any surviving children while court
cases are in progress
(5)
Being less concerned with issues of guilt and
conviction and more concerned with achieving the right outcomes for children
