I have the feeling John/Giok and Kevin protest too much. They're judging those who would discuss the topic as ghoulish or knee-jerk reactionary, when most of the posts here have been parental scolds and well-reasoned. It begs the question--do either of you see one of these doctors professionally or socially? Is there something more behind your defensive postures? The wild fund-raising and headline support for the parents sounded so bizarre. You can't judge the reader for picking up on the carnivalesque nature of the show.

I think Victor may have pulled a very good answer out of the muddle that is the news about this story. It's even easy to visualize how perhaps the plan was to give the children something to sleep and each parent, independent of the other, gave a dose, accidentally overdosing. I'm not throwing this out as the next big headline, I'm just saying it is actually an understandable situation, but it isn't acceptable to drug kids to sleep, so it still isn't right, ethically, if not wrong legally.

SRS