Martha and Lactnetters,

This situation is a tough one. Does anyone know where
there is some literature on where informed consent
leaves off and mandating particular kinds of care
starts? Is it in the legal literature? What do
various state DSSs have to say about mandated
reporters reporting this kind of "abuse and neglect"?

Sometimes the medical knowledge is wrong, in which case
we congratulate the people who bucked the system and
gave their children (or themselves) what they thought
was the best care. Other times medical knowledge is
right and we criticize the same people for their
"selfishness" etc. etc.

As far as I understand, we know that HIV can be transmitted
throught breastmilk butit isn't always transmitted and
we don't really have a good understanding of when it
transmits and when it doesn't. However, we do know the
effects if it does transmit  - pediatric AIDS. and we
know that the prognosis on pediatric AIDS is usually deadly.

For this particular mother, is milk from a milk bank an option?
I , too am interested in other's thoughts and resources on this
issue, both medical, ethical and legal.

I assume that you are familiar with the similar case
of the woman in Maine who took DSS to court and won.  The details
are probably different, but it may give some guidance here.

Naomi Bar-Yam PhD

P.S. Does anyone know where I can get a copy of
"HIV/AIDS and the Nutrition Rights of Infants"?