[Are prosecuted parents allowed the benefit of the doubt in cases of child abuse?]

The justified campaign against child abuse has unfortunately had a side effect. It has ruined the lives of some innocent parents of children with undiagnosed osteogenesis imperfecta. For 15 years, Colin Paterson and co-workers have studied a large number of patients with type IV of osteogenesis imperfecta, and have found that more than 50 per cent of them have normal radiographs of the bones at the time of the first fracture. Paterson and co-workers have also found that fractures of the ribs and skull are by no means uncommon in osteogenesis imperfecta type IV. These important observations should help, in the future, to prevent prosecution of innocent parents of children with osteogenesis imperfecta type IV, provided that the observations are not overlooked by pediatricians.