A spate of recent court cases has raised serious consequences for families when expert opinion is accepted without challenge. Many examples that have hit the headlines featured paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow, who frequently acted as an expert witness in cases about the possible non-accidental injury and death of children. The publicly reported cases have been heard in the criminal court, but Meadow's personal testimony has also been heavily used within the civil proceedings of family courts in England.
Meadow's work as a paediatrician led him to highlight Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, a condition in which carers, often but not always a parent, deliberately harm children.
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