Methods of Inference and Shaken Baby Syndrome

Authors

  • Nicholas Binney Department of Medical Ethics, Philosophy and History of Medicine, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0686-3184

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/pom.2023.41

Keywords:

Induction, Abduction, Abusive head trauma, Non-accidental head injury, Diagnostic criteria

Abstract

Exploring the early development of an area of medical literature can inform contemporary medical debates. Different methods of inference include deduction, induction, abduction, and inference to the best explanation. I argue that early shaken baby research is best understood as using abduction to tentatively suggest that infants with unexplained intracranial and ocular bleeding have been assaulted. However, this tentative conclusion was quickly interpreted, by some at least, as a general rule that infants with these pathological signs were certainly cases of abuse. Rather than focusing on inductive arguments, researchers today may be better off focusing on making a compelling inference to the best explanation.

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2023-05-11

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Binney, N. (2023). Methods of Inference and Shaken Baby Syndrome. Philosophy of Medicine, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.5195/pom.2023.41

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Vol. 4 No. 1 (2023)

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Original Research Articles (clinical research, evidence-based medicine)

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