In early March, Judge Johnson put Justina Pelletier's medical care back with Dr. Korman/Tufts

[magical thyme]

38. Boston Globe. And everybody has a personal bias, whether or not they realize it.

"From there, Justina, against her strong objections, was moved into the hospital’s locked psychiatric ward. Children’s and the state had ignored Korson’s requests to be included in a roundtable meeting to discuss Justina’s care."
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/12/16/month-medical-ordeal-conclusion-still-uncertain/Y7qvYTGsq8QklkxUZvuUgP/story.html

The March 4 article is the first I've seen that includes Dr. Korson in her treatment.

We take in information selectively because we can't pay attention to everything in front of us all the time. And how we make that selection depends on what we believe is important. That, in turn, depends on our past experience. Everybody comes at experience with some degree of bias, and the longer they've been alive, the more bias they bring.

I'm not specifically biased against judges; I just don't see them as automatically as impartial, or wise, or knowledgable about medicine. They bring their own pre-conceived ideas (this one considers swearing in front of a teenager as evidence of unfitness for parenting. How many parents on DU would pass that test?) They are human and as flawed as the rest of us.

I do have some prejudice against Harvard people, though, and I openly admit that. I have known a few socially and through work.

I also have some suspician of "somatoform disorder" which in some rare cases is true, but all too often is a catchall for "hysterical women" who actually do have a physically based disease (my mother's ulcers were not caused by "stress," but helicobacter pylori) that simpy is not yet understood.

The parents had originally been accused of, and lost custody due to, medical child neglect for getting too much treatment for their daughter. The treatment specifically referenced the gastrointestinal surgery that had been performed by Children's own gastroenterologist. That in itself is stunning to me.

I have read the judges 4-page decision. Now they have lost custody for swearing at hospital staff and threatening to sue various parties involved in taking their child away from them.