> Anne, I must respectfully disagree with your characterization of the
> letter from a milk banking official.  I do not think that you are
> being
> "muscled out by the big business milk bank interests."  In fact,
> knowing
> the sort of budgets that milk banks operate on, the concept of them as
> "big business" almost made me laugh.  This is not about business.
> This is
> about safety.  I thought that Carol Brussel expressed the concerns
> about
> your enterprise very well.  It is well-intentioned but does not have
> any
> way of guaranteeing the safeguards that simply must be in place for
> mothers, babies, families, and those who facilitate the exchange of
> human
> milk among all interested parties.
>
> Please don't disparage the hard work of milk bankers in your
> disappointment, or think that their concerns about safety are somehow
> business-related.  As the letter notes, milk banks virtually
> disappeared
> from the landscape in the wake of worries about HIV, and they are only
> just beginning to crawl back into consideration among many health
> professionals.  To have an informal system that could, however
> inadvertently or undeservedly, reawaken the fears and doubts of the
> 1980s
> would be a tremendous disservice to the mothers and babies you'd like
> to
> help.



I'm sorry, Mary, but her republication of her letter to the officials
to whom she republished, without even having received any response
from me (which she got within 5 minutes of her having sent it) make
very clear what her mindset and intentions were.  Given the context,
it was overkill, and inappropriate (had I not responded, it might
have been appropriate, but I not only responded, but took the site
down within minutes).  That action on her part was very clearly a
declaration of legal war [and I should know - I write plenty of them
myself].

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