"Salt murderess" not guilty
Remember the headlines back in 2004 when a young English mother was indicted for murdering her newborn son by poisoning him with an overdose of salt? Editorialists clucked about the toxicity of salt.
Well the case finally went to trial and the jury found the mother not guilty of murder or manslaughter, the charges brought against her.
No one, of course, would ever deny that there could be a toxic dosage of anything -- including water. But the trial not only resolved this particular legal matter, but prompted less sensationalist -- and ever more informative -- coverage of the facts of the case.
According to the Manchester Guardian,in post-acquital coverage, the child had been born 12 weeks prematurely; a twin died in the womb. Because the child's kidneys were undeveloped, they excreted too much salt, so the child was being treated under doctors' orders with high salt therapy (note, just as we treat hyponatremia and chronic fatigue syndrome). The story of kidney problems, frail health and dietary salt therapy escaped earlier stories which took the line that salt was much like arsenic or cyanide -- a murderous poison, obviously not well enough controlled by dangerous substances statutes.
The mother's attorney told the press commended the jurors for their (obviously sympathetic) reading of "what can only be described, at best, as complex and, at worst, dubious evidence" on the question of salt toxicity. Case closed. The exhonorated salt-wielding mom can now try to put her shattered life back together. A "common sense" verdict, the attorney said. We agree.
