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  • SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24 2005 11:45 AM

HIV-Positive Woman's Denial and Ignorance Kills Child

Submitted by Shal

Edited by Shal

I am filled with rage at a story in today's Los Angeles Times. Christine Maggiore, a wealthy woman who tested HIV-positive in 1992, convinced herself that HIV did not cause AIDS, and that in fact she wasn't sick at all. Despite the fact that she has no formal medical training, she wrote a book on the topic. She gave birth to and breast fed her two children, ignoring a huge body of medical research about parent-to-child HIV transmission. She refused to get her children tested for the disease, going to great lengths and questionable measures to avoid doctors who would require such tests. She has been supported in this task by a bizarre nationwide network of similarly-minded people.

Her 3-year-old daughter died of AIDS-related pnuemonia this year. Maggiore refuses to admit fault or change her views.

These days, given advances in HIV care, it's highly unusual for any young child to die of AIDS. What makes Eliza Jane's death even more striking is that her mother is a high-profile, charismatic leader in a movement that challenges the basic medical understanding and treatment of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Even now, Maggiore, a 49-year-old former clothing executive from Van Nuys, stands by the views she has espoused on "The Ricki Lake Show" and ABC's "20/20," and in Newsweek and Mothering magazines. She and her husband, Robin Scovill, said they have concerns about the coroner's findings and are sending the report to an outside reviewer.

"I have been brought to my emotional knees, but not in regard to the science of this topic," said Maggiore, author of an iconoclastic book about AIDS that has sold 50,000 copies. "I am a devastated, broken, grieving mother, but I am not second-guessing or questioning my understanding of the issue."



Maggiore's daughter, Eliza Jane, was shielded from HIV and AIDS testing by Dr. Paul Fleiss (who once got himself in some trouble by hiding the assets from his daughter Heidi Fleiss's high-class brothel), who was also in denial of the child's condition.

"I don't understand it," Fleiss said of Eliza Jane's death, "because I've never seen her sick or with anything resembling what she supposedly died ofÂ…. I don't believe I could have done anything to change this outcome."

Fleiss, who said he could be "convinced either way" on whether HIV causes AIDS, has known the family since before Eliza Jane was born. In 2000, the county Department of Children and Family Services investigated Maggiore and Scovill after a tipster complained that Charlie was in danger because he hadn't been tested for HIV and was breast-fed.

The department found no evidence of neglect, based partly on reassurances from Fleiss, according to an official report reviewed by The Times.



The Los Angeles police department is investigating everyone involved for potential child neglect.

Neglect?!? How about criminal fucking negliance, reckless endangerment, and voluntary manslaughter? Every doctor who examined this child should be sued for malpractice, and this woman and her husband and everyone along the line who helped hide or ignore this child's condition should be put in fucking prison. I hope the Maggiores' son, Charlie, gets the medical attention he most likely desperately needs.

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Comments
MrStitches

MrStitches

Brooklyn, NY
November 2003

SEP 24, 2005 05:02 PM

Fucking people. . .

PaulNikon

PaulNikon

Melbourne, FL
February 2003

SEP 24, 2005 05:42 PM

Jessie said:
You know, if someone has sex with another person, knowingly has AIDs, and does not tell their parnet, they are convicted of manslaughter.

This woman should be fed to the fucking dogs.




Well said.

benjiB

benjiB

Richmond, VA
November 2004

SEP 24, 2005 06:24 PM

Is the line to slap some sense into Christine Maggoire?

Seriously, how do you not arrest this woman?

Shal

Shal

Los Angeles, CA
October 2002

SEP 24, 2005 06:25 PM

benjiB said:
Is the line to slap some sense into Christine Maggoire?

Seriously, how do you not arrest this woman?




Don't forget her husband and the doctors.

Vuokko

Vuokko

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

SEP 25, 2005 11:00 AM

"AIDS is a toxic disease caused by either long-term recreational drug abuse or short-term anti-HIV medications," writes a 22-year-old member of the Alive and Well-affiliated Students Reappraising AIDS on the Foo Fighters' Web-based message board. "HIV is not spread sexually, nor is it the cause of any disease."



Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Aaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha! Whew! Heh.

....


Wait... they weren't kidding?

Chitin

Chitin

New York, NY
December 2004

SEP 25, 2005 11:05 AM

THe dangers of wishful thinking taken to horrible extremes.

lilviciousone

lilviciousone

Los Angeles, CA
March 2005

SEP 25, 2005 02:31 PM

I vaguely remember an angry prostitute in the news that had knowingly transmitted HIV to some of her johns. She was charged and imprisoned.

This woman should be treated no different. mad

[Edited on Sep 25, 2005 2:32PM]

Neyrissa

Neyrissa

SUICIDEGIRL

United Kingdom

SEP 25, 2005 03:19 PM

Bloody hell. Every day something else happens to make me more astonished that the human race still exists...

DrZaius_

DrZaius_

Shallotte, NC
OLD SKOOL

SEP 25, 2005 03:48 PM

These people are the same as those who claim the Holocaust never happened

ASSH0LE

ASSH0LE

Las Vegas, NV
June 2003

SEP 25, 2005 03:55 PM

Liante said:
I realize that part of what makes America great is the "democracy of ideas." I understand the benefits of leaving people free to espouse and argue any half-assed wacko theory they want, under the assumption that other people will be able to evaluate those idiot theories and discard them in favor of good ideas.



One of the top selling books right now is about natural remedies. Tons of people are buying it to get cures for heart disease, diabetes et al. And it's written by a guy who had to sign a consent decree not to make any more informercials because he'd made so many false claims in them. Due to the First Ammendment of the U.S. Constitution, he was allowed to make infomercials for books.

Guess what he's doing now?

And the suckers are lapping it up.

RedViolet

RedViolet

SUICIDEGIRL

Ohio, USA

SEP 25, 2005 04:18 PM

it's really amazing that the human race has lasted this long.

what a fucking bitch...

Necia

Necia

San Francisco, CA
August 2005

SEP 25, 2005 06:54 PM

Blows my mind.

The woman seems sincere, too, which is the mind-blowing part. Maybe I'm too cynical, but a cracked-out mother who just didn't care wouldn't be quite as surprising. This woman is just off her fucking nut.

I read some of her blog that she's set up on the website for her daughter (http://www.ejlovetour.com) and it really sounds like she and her husband are full-out yuppie hippies gone horribly fucking wrong. They do their yoga, they eat only organic foods, they buy food from local ethnic food stands while on vacation and feel "cultured," they don't let their children kill bugs in the house because "the bugs are part of our family too" . . . and they don't believe that HIV causes AIDS.

There's even a picture on this photo gallery of her breast-feeding the girl as a baby--it's really pretty horrifying. "Wow--I just saw a photo of you giving your daughter AIDS."

I agree--if it's a crime to have sex with someone without informing them that you are HIV positive, then this woman and her husband and all of those doctors should go to jail, no question. The law doesn't give a flying fuck if I screw a bunch of people and give them all HIV because I don't believe that it causes AIDS--the point is that I passed HIV along to them--and the law shouldn't give a flying fuck what this woman believes here, either.

MistressMissy

mistressmissy

Grand Rapids, MI
March 2003

SEP 25, 2005 07:21 PM

some people are fucking repulsive

SwitchSigh

SwitchSigh

Minneapolis, MN
January 2005

SEP 25, 2005 07:23 PM

I had the same reaction to the picture of Maggiore breastfeeding her daughter. Creepy shivers down my spine....ugh.

You know, I give the bitch kudos for bucking traditional thought (fuck what the Man says about HIV and AIDS) - she did her own research, she came up with an alternative hypothesis. She's currently in the experimental stage - by not indulging in recreational drugs and by eating healthy and exercising daily she's managed to live antiretroviral drug-free for 13 years without experiencing a fatal illness. Congrats, bitch. If she dies at 90 from a heart attack and her white cell count is over 10,000 maybe she'll prove that HIV doesn't have to be fatal for rich white vegan exercise buffs in denial of having a fatal illness.

BUT

What right did she have to enroll two unconsenting human beings in her fucking experiment? And by promoting her theory as fact she's endangering other children AND their mother AND sexual partners of idiots who deny that HIV causes AIDS.

Kittie

Kittie

Pittsburgh, PA
August 2003

SEP 25, 2005 07:33 PM

what a fucking shitbag.
its one thing to be a moron about your own health but to deny a serious medical condition in your own child, is just..argh, fucking horrible. mad
miao!!

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