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things are tougher for a parent than dealing with a child’s serious
medical condition, particularly if it is complicated and hard to
diagnose. The parent has to make hard choices about treatment,
navigating conflicting advice from doctors or even rejecting one
doctor’s opinion and seeking another.
Recently,
the situation of these parents has gotten even harder. Some doctors and
hospitals have begun to level a radical new charge — “medical child
abuse” — against parents who, they say, get unnecessary or excessive
treatment for their kids. That this care is usually ordered by other
doctors hasn’t protected parents from these loaded accusations.
