A tough time for paediatricians

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7430.0-g

BMJ 2004;328 (3 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7430.0-g

Editor's choice

A tough time for paediatricians

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Paediatrics is a highly attractive specialty but also, as thisissue shows, a tough one. Disease in the young is protean. Evidenceis often lacking. The wrong intervention may lead to a lifetimeof damage. And the sociology is complex: everybody is supposedto love children, but they are regularly abused. The British,for example, object vociferously to European attempts to stopthem beating their children. "It never did me any harm," isthe cry from people whose looks and behaviour belie their conviction.

One of Britain's most eminent paediatricians, Sir Roy Meadow,has been reported to the General Medical Council, the body thatregulates British doctors, for his role as a prosecution witnessin three trials where mothers were wrongly convicted of killingtheir babies (p 9). These convictions have all been overturnedin the past year, and there may be a review of all cases in. . . [Full text of this article]

Richard Smith, editor

rsmith@bmj.com