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"?