A Lab Test That Experts Liken to a Witch Trial Is Helping Send Women to Prison for Murder
www.propublica.org
The “lung float” test claims to help determine if a baby was born alive or dead, but many medical examiners say it’s too unreliable. Yet the test is still being used to bring murder charges — and get convictions.

The “lung float” test claims to help determine if a baby was born alive or dead, but many medical examiners say it’s too unreliable. Yet the test is still being used to bring murder charges — and get convictions.

e; added “in Multiple U.S. States” to the title

  • @[email protected]
    16•1 year ago

    The test has been used in at least 11 cases where women were charged criminally since 2013 and has helped put nine of them behind bars,

    ProPublica found only 11 cases where lung float tests had been performed in a 10-year period.

    ProPublica then contacted the 12 largest medical examination offices and discovered that only two actually used the test at all, and none of them considered the results definitive proof of live birth.

    Note that they were aware of which offices had performed the 11 tests they were aware of, and yet they could not find anyone willing to “[express] full-throated support for the test.”

    This article is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

    • @[email protected]
      11•1 year ago

      ProPublica then contacted the 12 medical examination offices and discovered that only two actually used the test at all, and none of them considered the results definitive proof of live birth.

      Source?

      Note that they were aware of which offices had performed the 11 tests they were aware of, and yet they could not find anyone willing to “[express] full-throated support for the test.”

      This is the full quote. “None of the 12 largest offices by jurisdiction expressed full-throated support for the test.” They didn’t state that the 12 largest offices were the ones who performed the tests. What you posted was taken out of context and given new context.

      Here’s the surrounding context to give more insight. Nowhere did they state that these 12 offices who didn’t express support for the test are the ones who did the test.

      " Cook County, home to Chicago, pathologists use it, but give more weight to “more reliable methods” including X-rays, microscopic examinations and autopsy findings to determine whether a birth was live or still. Others, like the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said the test may be useful only if a baby was not born into a toilet, CPR was not performed and decomposition was not present. None of the 12 largest offices by jurisdiction expressed full-throated support for the test.

      And while the national organization that represents medical examiners said that it doesn’t have an official stance on the lung float test, it said it “strongly advocates using scientifically validated and evidence-based practices in forensic pathology.” The National Association of Medical Examiners called the lung float test “a single, dated test” that has not been subjected to the organization’s rigorous evaluation process."