Letter To The Editor

Dr. Gil comments as folllows

Dr. Fontana's comments on my paper reflect a clinical prespective on child abuse, which may be appropriate in dealing with individual incidents, but not in unravelling the nature and scope of a complex phenomenon involving medical, psychological, social, cultural, and legal aspects. To Dr. Fontana, child abuse is merely a "pediatric syndrome" and he questions, by implication, the credentials of nonmedical investigators of the phenomenon. Such a narrow conceptualization reflects the "emotional bias and vested interest" to which Dr. Fontana objects so eloquently in his letter.