Sunday 26 August 2007

Save a life - shoot a social worker

I've just been over to A Tangled Web, where I read about one of the most disgusting stories of state interference in the life of a decent, law-abiding, British citizen that it has ever been my misfortune to hear of. The citizen in question is Fran Lyon, a pregnant twenty-two year old, and the act of state interference is the decision of social workers to remove her child from her, the very moment it is born. Why are they doing this? Well, it's not because she has a track record of abusing children: indeed, it's not because of anything she's done at all. Nor is it because she is clearly and indisputably incapable of raising a child - rather, she is an intelligent woman, with a degree in neuroscience. No, the reason is, that a doctor who has never met her thinks that she may in the future suffer from a psychiatric condition which doesn't exist, even though other doctors (who actually have met her) have said that she would be a perfectly good mother.

Specifically, the physician, Dr Martin Ward Platt (pronounce the last part like a Japanese, and you've got it about right) - who, incidentally, is a paediatrician rather than a psychiatrist - claims that it is possible she might develop Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy (MSBP): a condition in which a person with influence over another induces in that person an illness, or belief in an illness, in order to gain control over that person and attention from others. His evidence for this appears to extend as far as the fact that six years ago she had an eating disorder and self-harmed. Now, to me a prediction that she might develop this condition, based on such very limited evidence, is in itself an unacceptably weak basis for removing the woman's child from her. Even if social workers are worried, could they not simply keep a close eye on both mother and child, and take action the moment something appeared wrong? Well, no, they probably couldn't: after all, they have quotas to meet.

However, the weakness of the evidence is not the only problem with the social workers' claim. Another, even more significant, weakness is that MSBP has never been conclusively shown to exist at all. Many doctors are highly sceptical about the condition, which was discovered/invented by the infamous Roy Meadow in 1977. Meadow, who has remained its principal promulgator over the intervening thirty years, has subsequently been shown to be a charlatan quack to the satisfaction of both the judges of the Court of Appeal, and his fellow doctors in the General Medical Council, who found him guilty of serious professional misconduct. His mendacity and ineptitude while appearing as an "expert" witness in the trials of a number of women accused of murdering their babies led to several convictions being overturned, and to calls both from within and without the legal profession for a wholesale restructuring of the rules governing expert witness evidence. Should a theory which owes its very existence, let alone most of its subsequent support, to such a man as Meadow be considered anything close to a sufficient justification for removing Fran Lyon's - or any other woman's - child? Not in my opinion.

As for the social workers: they are so far beneath contempt that if they climbed for a year it would still only be a distant speck on the horizon. They appear to have systematically rejected all evidence tending to support any outcome other than removing the child, which almost makes one wonder whether some of them have a personal grudge against Ms Lyon. Pete Moore at ATW suggests that Ms Lyon and her family should prepare to use lethal force to prevent doctors or social workers from taking the child: I too believe she would be justified in doing so.

8 comments:

Fidothedog said...

Well it won't be that long before justice is decided on the evidence of a witch doctor rattling some bones to decide someones guilt or innocence.

And it would still be more accurate that any facts by that Meadows chap.

Anonymous said...

I don't dispute that this shouldn't have happened, but I don't think it's fair to think all Social Workers are the same.
I'm hoping to become a Social Worker, and if I had been working on this case I'd have been trying to make sure she had extra support so that if she did develop the condition it would be able to be treated, hopefully successfully.

Anonymous said...

...dont kid yourself would-be social worker, the case would have gone exactly as it did.

Doubtless you have never been despairing at the frustration of having no one to turn to? Had your life shattered by the word of other people and you cannot be represented in a "court of law" to defend yourself? Social Workers have lied in these secret courts!

We won’t let them get away with it, no longer can they hide behind the secret courts, we tell of their wrong doings mention them by name, address photograph car reg number, I mean everything, let the world know who they are.

In my experience they are callous, deceitful self-righteous and self-opinionated bastards, our day will come, as will theirs!

SS are the scum of the earth and absolutely despised with a vengeance by so many people who’s lives they have ruined, they WILL be named and the time is now,
this ball is rolling and won’t stop until the “people with no voice” yes that’s us, the victims of the secret courts, have their say, the system stinks to the core.

Still want to be a social worker?.. a word of warning tred VERY carefully, we are growing!

...shooting would be too good for you, I swear you will suffer as we have..

Anonymous said...

That's really awful. Hopefully it will all get sorted out.
I've been thinking of becomming a soical worker too. I agree that many aren't the greatest but obviously some of them are decent people. Even if you believe they are all corrupt, wouldn't you like it if someone honest came along with intentions of doing the job the right way? I think they do the best they can, sometimes they make mistakes, but it would be a lot worse without them.

Anonymous said...

What you want to be a social worker? What's wrong can't you get a real job? Get an F'kin life,why the hell would you want to join that merry band of child stealers, NAME SHAME AND DESTROY their lives as they have done to so many others. I agree with the other poster, many of the child protection (ha thats a laugh) social workers are truely scum, who deserve to die a slow lingering death.

Anonymous said...

i beleive the wicked will be revealed for what they are and when the day comes i wouldnt like to be in their shoes but in the meantime what can we do about our dearly loved children who have been stolen by the wicked authorities of this land, we reap what we sow and their day will surely come sooner rather than later ,what will make the government wake up ,proberly when someone takes revenge on these child abusers as its all they are and i pray in jesus that they will only have a short time left unless they change their ways from a grieving grandmother whose 3 children have been snatched by these monsters

Anonymous said...

They say they are here to help or protect kids not in my eyes,they have done more harm than good my nephews and neice were taken away from a loving caring enviroment into strangers homes they have never even met.I think they need named and shamed and themselves not allowed to have or keep children see how they like it the y are scum of the earth.And hopefully the kids who have been taken for nothing will be returned and the s.s can start helping the poor kids that need help.angryaunt

Anonymous said...

ifeel realy sad about my 3 best cousins going into care. My aunti katrina did nothing rong. they got treated best at there mams rather getting put into care heres a little poem about social workers
i am a social worker, im realy very nice i help you loving mothers and give you good advice. your partener is abusive he beats you black and blue, well soon be there to help and take your children too!
you have a learning problem , realy not to clever well get your kids adoptded and when will you see them? NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HOPE MY COUSINS COME BACK!
BY NATALIA .S. NEILL 9