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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
JII

JII

Arlington, VA
August 2005

SEP 25, 2005 10:59 PM

I don't understand how Fleiss (I refuse to use Dr.) could be "convinced either way" on the fact that HIV cause AIDS.....

I think the fact that a chimp can be injected with the HIV virus, fight it off, and look like "Thank you, may I have another....," while a human could be injected with the virus and die of AIDS, is pretty convincing that HIV causes AIDS.

LuLu

LuLu

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

SEP 25, 2005 11:29 PM

Un-fucking-believable.

what a fucking nut job! i hope somebody stops her from having any more children.

Thistle

Thistle

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

SEP 25, 2005 11:58 PM

How totally fucking sad.

MstrssWitchbaby

MstrssWitchbaby

Boston, MA
August 2005

SEP 26, 2005 07:06 AM

that woman should rot for this.

vermillionpart3

vermillionpart3

Ridgefield, CT
August 2005

SEP 26, 2005 10:09 AM

you guys should seriously check out christian scienc.e... if you wanna get more pissed off i mean.

it's a whole freakin church with tons of this shit....

it's also rather cultlike.. around teh icon of mary baker eddy (founder)...

Elisabeth

Elisabeth

Atherton, CA
December 2002

SEP 26, 2005 11:01 AM

Shame on Dr. Fleiss. You'd think that he would lay low, especially after the scandal involving Heidi.

What a travesty for eveyone involved. frown

He was my pediatrician in the early 80's (oh the horror), and he was archaic even then. I'm shocked that he's still practicing, and I'm also concerned about the 50000 copies of the book this woman wrote. Are there others out there like her in such mass numbers? eeek

Lily

Lily

SUICIDEGIRL

New York, USA

SEP 26, 2005 11:38 AM

I suggest anyone to read christine maggiories book "What if everything you thought you knew about aids was wrong" and decipher what is truth and what is false themselves. Before you are so quick to scoff her theories off as "nonsense", you should do the reading yourself.While i agree that maggiorie is at a certain level of denial, she raises consciousness and important questions that the government refuses to answer about HIV and AIDS. She uses science to prove her theories and she has been attacked for her beliefs for years .
Its a hard decisicion to make for someone who is a parent of a hiv positive child as to wether they want to use powerful drugs on their children that paralyze their energy and souls and eventually make them die or let them live out their lives while using homeopathic alterniative to the horrible aids drugs.
From the research i've done and the things I HAVE SEEN, The hiv/aids drugs kill more children than the actual virus.
Just a different opinion that i felt i needed to throw out there.

Sysca

Sysca

SUICIDEGIRL

France

SEP 26, 2005 11:50 AM

eeek eeek eeek eeek eeek

tbauc

tbauc

I'm lost
February 2004

SEP 27, 2005 02:04 PM

Is it "guns don't kill people people with guns kill people, guns don't kill people bullets fired from guns aimed at people kill people" confused

KMFCM

KMFCM

Peekskill, NY
September 2002

SEP 28, 2005 08:36 AM


I KNOW A GIRL LIKE THIS

she infected her boyfreind, and then cheated on him with his freind

MistahPrince

MistahPrince

Chicago, IL
February 2005

SEP 28, 2005 08:57 AM

Lily said:
I suggest anyone to read christine maggiories book "What if everything you thought you knew about aids was wrong" and decipher what is truth and what is false themselves. Before you are so quick to scoff her theories off as "nonsense", you should do the reading yourself.While i agree that maggiorie is at a certain level of denial, she raises consciousness and important questions that the government refuses to answer about HIV and AIDS. She uses science to prove her theories and she has been attacked for her beliefs for years .
Its a hard decisicion to make for someone who is a parent of a hiv positive child as to wether they want to use powerful drugs on their children that paralyze their energy and souls and eventually make them die or let them live out their lives while using homeopathic alterniative to the horrible aids drugs.
From the research i've done and the things I HAVE SEEN, The hiv/aids drugs kill more children than the actual virus.
Just a different opinion that i felt i needed to throw out there.



While I am willing to listen to alternative ideas, they need to have some proof behind them. I would really like to see some proof that more children die from the HIV drugs than with nothing at all (or at least that they live longer).

Even if that were true, the mother played the game of ignorance. If she did nothing, her child would have had a 15-30% chance of contracting the virus. Less if she had taken the anti-fusion drugs and had a cesarean. She could have also reduced the risk of infection to her child if she refused to breastfeed them (by about 10-15%) but she didn't do this either.
Source

You know what I see this as? This is a rich woman who doesn't want to have the stigma of HIV/AIDS attached to her. And you know what? That's fine, and here's the key part, as long as your beliefs don't harm those around you. An innocent child died. That doesn't fucking happen these days because we know how to stop the infection from a pregnant mother onwards. But she chose the path of ignorance, and for this, her act is unforgivable.

Wren

Wren

SUICIDEGIRL

Minnesota, USA

SEP 28, 2005 09:00 AM

KMFCM said:

I KNOW A GIRL LIKE THIS

she infected her boyfreind, and then cheated on him with his freind



You should beat her to death.

ortho7117

ortho7117

Charlotte, NC
April 2004

SEP 28, 2005 08:00 PM

I can't believe hardly anyone has ever heard of her. I've read about her for years. She raises a few good points, but she's mostly unconvincing in her arguments. There are some surprising unanswered questions about HIV, and she presents these thoroughly. The problem is that she makes dangerous leaps of logic and is willfully blind to the abundance of research that supports the standard HIV theory.

Her basic thining is this: "There are some things we still don't understand; therefore HIV doesn't cause AIDS." It's like the "god of the gaps" reasoning of the Intelligent Design movement.

What I want to know, since it wasn't mentioned in the article, is whether or not Eliza Jane was actually HIV-positive. They say she was never tested. Two people, one HIV positive and one HIV negative, can have the same "AIDS-related disease" and die, but only the HIV positive one will have died of "AIDS". A positive HIV test is required for an AIDS diagnosis. Keep in mind though, that this fungal pneumonia is extremely rare outside of HIV positive patients.

Shal

Shal

Los Angeles, CA
October 2002

SEP 29, 2005 09:24 PM

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charlie29sep29,1,4727840.story?coll=la-headlines-california

State officials forced them to have their son tested for HIV, and thankfully he tested negative. He'll be allowed to stay with them (they were considering removing custody) unless they're convicted of criminal charges related to their daughter's death.

Sophie_Sass

Sophie_Sass

Los Angeles, CA
October 2003

SEP 29, 2005 10:05 PM

I wonder why the daughter got it and the son didn't.

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