Bad Medicine Parents the State and the Charge of “Medical Child Abuse”

238 University of California, Davis [Vol. 50:205
despite the fact that, outside of the MCA context, parents’ accounts of
their child’s medical history, as well as medical records generally, have
been shown to be rife with errors. 144 To bolster the case, experts
sometimes testify that the parent’s personality comports with the MCA
behavioral profile. 145 That profile, which was borrowed from the MSBP
context, has been disclaimed even by MCA proponents, 146 never been
empirically proven to distinguish between abusive parents and other
parents, and contains behavioral traits exhibited by many — probably,
most — parents of genuinely ill children, including being unwilling to
leave a sick child’s bedside, wanting to seek out second opinions when
a doctor tells them that their sick child is not sick, and being friendly
and cooperative with medical personnel. 147
In deciding the case, courts often give these pediatricians’ opinions
more credence than those of the child’s treating specialists or outside
parental reporting are not observed by other persons or the alleged disease is not
responsible to appropriate treatment.”); see also In re Z.S., 2014 WL 4267478
(pediatrician finds medical child abuse through medical records review of child
without meeting parent).
144 See infra notes 358–367 and accompanying text.
145 See, e.g., In re Joseph P., 2000 Conn. Super. LEXIS 984 (Apr. 14, 2000) (“Dr.
Jenny did assist the court by describing how the events of March 2000, when coupled
with other factors such as mother’s medical expertise as a licensed professional nurse,
her desire to debate medicine with Michael’s doctors, Michael’s status as being
chronically ill, and the fact that the father, as a long-distance trucker, was not in the
home on a daily basis, all fit the profile of a Munchausen case.”); In re K.T., 836
N.E.2d 769 (Ill. App. 2005) (“In addition, respondent was calm and unemotional
while discussing claims of such catastrophic medical conditions in her children, which
was highly characteristic of factitious disorder by proxy.”); In re Anesia E., No.
03877/02, 2004 WL 1563337, at *44 (N.Y. Fam. Ct. July 9, 2004) (“factors commonly
found in case histories of parents, usually mothers, diagnosed with MSP include: . . .
the mother’s training in nursing or related medical fields; . . . the mother’s unusually
supportive and cooperative attitude toward medical personnel; and . . . the mother’s
symbiotic relationship to the child.”); see also In re Aaron S., 625 N.Y.S.2d 786 (N.Y.
Fam. Ct. 1993) (describing a prototypical Munchausen’s mother as “articulate and
bright, and possesses a high degree of medical knowledge and/or fascination with
medical details and hospital gossip, and seems to enjoy the hospital environment.
Normally the mother seems . . . encouraging of the physician and medical staff. She is
a highly attendant parent who is reluctant to leave her child’s side . . . .”), aff’d, In re
Suffolk Cty. Dept. of Social Servs., 626 N.Y.S.2d 227 (N.Y. App. Div. 1995).
146 See ROESLER & JENNY, supra note 12, at 32-33 (“[I]dentifying potential
perpetrators form such a profile would be essentially impossible.”); Isaac & Roesler,
supra note 63, at 300 (making similar claim).
147 See infra notes 402–422 and accompanying text. For one psychological profile
list, see, e.g., MICH. TASK FORCE REP., supra note 31, at 3. For an excellent critique of
the profile in the MSBP context, see MART, supra note 37, at 48-57.