Emily Bazelon, the reporter who wrote last winter’s New York Times Magazine article about shaken baby syndrome, has published another piece on the subject, in the on-line magazine Slate, at this url.
This shorter piece is even more clear-cut about the issues, and the lead includes her conversation with Dr. A. Normal Guthkelch, the British neuropathologist who first proposed shaking as a mechanism of infant brain injury in 1971. Dr. Guthkelch now says he’s worried that shaking theory is used in the courtroom to target innocent caregivers, as reported last summer by NPR.
The Slate piece is especially welcome right now, when most of the press coverage seems to accept without question the classic model. In Missouri, for example, a state legislator has proposed a bill to lengthen sentences for people convicted of abuse through shaking, as reported in the Missourian.
On Shaken Baby 