As background information, some of you might want to know that children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome often have extremely poor social boundaries. THeir behavior is sometimes quite similar to children who have been sexually abused. And provocative behavior of this kind unfortunately can put children at risk of abuse, esp with adults who themselves have poor interpersonal boundaries. I personally know nothing at all about Michael Dorris. I do know that sadly his family is not the first or last adoptive family to be visited by this kind of tragedy. In American culture, we are firm belief that "when there is smoke, there is fire", even a family where the parent is eventually exonorated may be shunned, isolated and torn apart forever. Here we are on a listserve devoted to helping children get OPTIMAL postnatal nutrition. I think it is worth recognizing the heartbreak of there being so many children whose destinies are shaped by such detrimental prenatal nutrition. In adoptive famiies, one of the ongoing realities is that one's children's lives are continually shaped not just by the knowledge of rejection but by the fact the mother who would do anything in the world for them did not have the privilege of eating properly and monitoring every substance that went into her mouth during their precious first nine months of life. And this loss, which is quite real and unrelated to lack of genetic linkage between parent and child, is something that adoptive parents of drug and alcohol exposed children experience over and over again at each stage of their children's development. I don't know if Louise Edrich was writing about her biological children or her adopted ones in that lovely poem. I do know that all children can be wild but the work to civilize some is made so much harder by alcohol and drugs and the toll of families can be enormous and unending. Judy Gelman Washington, DC *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html