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from Parenting & Family

Retired Pediatric Anesthesiologist Questions Accuracy Of AAP Article On Gay Marriage And Children

November 16, 2006 - Dr. Sharon Quick, a retired pediatric anesthesiologist recently posted a rejoinder to an American Academy of Pediatrics article, "The Effects Of Marriage, Civil Union, And Domestic Partnership Laws On The Health And Well-being Of Children," (Pawelski, Perrin, Foy, Pediatrics, July 2006)

Her rejoinder was published on the AAP web site on November 10, 2006. In it, Quick points out that the article quotes extensively from an AAP Technical Report (TR) published in 2002, but without properly attributing it as the source.

She writes: "The TR is not a good resource for readers or authors as it has quotation errors extensive enough to invalidate the document."

The TR, "Coparent or Second-Parent Adoption By Same-Sex Parents," was authored by Ellen C. Perrin, MD, co-author of the July document on same-sex parenting.

According to Dr. Quick, an analysis of the footnotes used in the TR reveal numerous errors. There were 31 references cited 46 times in the text. In 22 out of 43 footnotes, 51% of them misquoted the reference. Said Quick, "Fifteen references are cited once with eight total misquotations. Eleven references are cited twice, and misquoted a total of eleven times. Of the 28 references examined, 16 (57%) were misquoted at least once."

Quick notes that the TR has nine citations that do not address the stated assertions. Two statements "misrepresent data by citing a reference that has findings in direct opposition to the statement and citing a study on children aged three to nine to support an assertion about outcomes of adult children."

Dr. Quick notes that these errors are then repeated as facts in the Pawelski, Perrin, and Foy paper, which was published in the July 2006 Pediatrics journal.

Editor's Note: Footnote 15 in "Replication of Quotation Errors" in the cached P3R web page should be replaced with: 15. Korioth T. Academy changes procedure for development of policy statements. AAP News. 2002 March 1, 2002;20(3):113-a-.


Additional Reading: When Activism Masquerades as Science: Potential Consequences of Recent APA Resolutions; Pediatric Academic Societies' 2006 Annual Meeting Encourages Normalization Of Gender-Variant Children.




Updated: 28 February 2008

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