Smothering claim ‘unfair’
PA Auckland A claim by an English professor that up to 10 per cent of cot-death babies are killed by their mothers, has been criticised by a New Zealand expert. The national co-ordina-tor of the Cot Death Division, Dr Shirley Tonkin, said that to suggest a
’ parental factor in cot deaths was unfair. Professor Roy Meadow, of St James University, Leeds, has repeated his claim that up to 10 per cent of cot death babies may have been smothered by their mothers. Cot death was' not a failure of parents’ love or care but more likely an
inbred weakness of the child’s functions. “I get to know almost all the cases in Auckland and you couldn’t possibly think they smothered their baby,” she said. “The great majority loved their child and cared for them better than most parents.”
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Press, 19 July 1989, Page 8
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141Smothering claim ‘unfair’ Press, 19 July 1989, Page 8
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