The sketchy test sending moms to prison
There's this 400-year-old forensic test that scientists have long warned is unreliable when it comes to determining whether a baby was born dead or alive. So why is it still being used in many parts of Latin America?
Headlines From The Times · Rowan Moore Garrity, Mike Heflin, Madalyn Amato, Heba Elorbany, Jazmín Aguilera, Mark Nieto, Mario Diaz, David Toledo, Shannon Lin, Denise Guerra, Gustavo Arellano, Kasia Broussalian, Ashlea Brown, Kinsee Morlan, Shani O. Hilton
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Show Notes
There’s a test used across Latin America to determine whether a baby was born dead or alive. And depending on the result, it could allow prosecutors to bring murder charges against mothers who might have had a still-born birth. And there’s an even bigger problem. This test is 400 years old and very unreliable.
Today, how the so-called flotation test is sending women to prison for killing their newborns, when they say that they’re innocent. Read the full transcript here.
Host: Gustavo Arellano
Guests: L.A. Times foreign correspondent Leila Miller
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