Neurologische Störungen

Lessons from the Great Medico-Legal Chapter of Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

George Gregory Buttigieg

It is not pleasant to reflect on the truth that science can be wrong. Even more so, when such wrong scientific conclusions have found expression in Courts of Law, and fashioned the destinies of men and women. Yet, facts are facts and truth is truth, whether we face it squarely or turn our heads to avert its gaze.

The misdirection in the aetiology of Cerebral Palsy generated in the USA in the 1960’s has the onus of responsibility of misdirecting not only medicine, but, also jurisprudence, as far as the scientific advisory goes. This article has the unhappy responsibility of recalling those facts, in order for history not to repeat its sad past. It is neither uncommon nor unusual for science to correct its original statements. However when medical science has erred and its mistaken conclusions wrought mistaken clinical conclusions, it is serious business. It is doubly serious when those conclusions have been applied in a Court of Law, which needs medical advice in the form of an expert.

This article commences from the original two pillars of misconception and retraces the subsequent mistaken steps after the 1960’s. One cannot point fingers at individuals, but one is certainly obliged to lance the collective buboes, and once the pus is freed, encourage regeneration of growth. And since, the essential core of the scope of the reasoning is medico-legal, it is essential that at no point does the article oppose legal retribution of sub-standard obstetric practice leading to the disastrous condition of Cerebral palsy of a new-born child. Such legal redress is right and just. However the mechanism of assessing the parameters in use in bringing forward such a claim must be fairly based on correct science. Only then, can justice prevail, both for the plaintiff as well as the defendant.