>when will they sue the people who have >so persistently and negligently overlooked the fact that any stud breeder >would know, that artificial feeding is automatically harmful(in greater or >less degree, but harmful, distorting of normal developemnt immunologically, >biochemically..) to the normal physiological development of nay mammal? Maureen, if only "society" would recognize the risks of artificial feeding! The attorneys who represent "our side" face wholesale discounting of the risks--if not outright ridicule--when they bring up the hazards of abm. One of the LCs in our Massachusetts affiliate helped a low-income, ethnic minority mother cope with months of pumping after her young infant was taken away and put into a foster home (long story, there was suspicion the father had injured the child and the mother would not leave him). The mother pumped and delivered a full supply to the foster home each week, but the foster mother admitted to the social worker she was discarding the milk because "formula helped the baby sleep longer." The social worker(s) and judge refused to order the foster mother to use the ebm (and they were provided with hazards info...) BTW, the birth mother was allowed one hour per week to visit the baby (so as not to upset the foster family) and *the baby nursed avidly on every visit.* The baby has been returned to the birth mother (finally)--and I believe I heard the father was exonerated. (Anyone who needs details on this case can email be--I can pin down the exact facts from the LC who worked with this mother) Today on NPR (US public radio) there was a program focussing on the battles against the behemoth tobacco industry, and the trials (quite literally) of a former tobacco industry scientist who blew the whistle when he realized the company he worked for wanted to suppress the data they (themselves) compiled on the dangers of tobacco. Now there are dozens of suits being processed, brought by tobacco users suing the cigarette companies for, they believe, promoting (advertising) a product they knew was addictive and harmful. It has now gotten to the point where the FDA is close(r) to having nicotine/tobacco declared a drug (subject to control). If only a formula company scientist would crack... As long as bottles and formula are seen as benign icons of infancy we have little hope of convincing a court that breast is best. (But thanks to all of you LCs, writers and attorneys who are working on this problem.) Margery Wilson, IBCLC Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts USA