Homebirth kills babies who didn’t have to die … and that’s not the worst thing about it.
The worst thing about homebirth is the way that it countenances and promotes evil.
Homebirth advocates promote evil by deliberately lying about the dangers of homebirth.
They promote evil by opposing any efforts at regulation.
They promote evil by burying dead homebirth babies twice, first in a tiny coffin in the ground, and then by erasing their existence from homebirth websites, blogs and message boards.
They promote evil by deleting and banning those who disagree with them.
But worst of all, in my view, homebirth advocates promote pure, unadulterated evil by aiding, abetting, and praising killer practitioners. Apparently homebirth advocates have never met an incident of babyslaughter that they can’t justify (to themselves). What is babyslaughter? My view is that a newborn death resulting from taking of an unreasonable and high degree of risk should be considered criminally negligent babyslaughter.
Think about it. Has there been even a single episode babyslaughterer that has been held to account by homebirth advocates? If there has been, I haven’t heard.
Quite the opposite, in fact, as babyslaughters from Lisa Barrett to Rowan Bailey are never even questioned by the homebirth community and instead showered with support and money. Apparently homebirth means never having to say your sorry for your role in a baby’s death.
The latest example is Dr. Robert Biter. I’ve been writing about Dr. Biter since his hospital privileges were suspended in 2010.
In the intervening years, Dr. Biter has been the subject of disciplinary hearings that revealed the details of multiple instances of medical malpractice and gross negligence (reports available at the Medical Board of California website). Still his supporters clung on and women continued to hire him to deliver their babies. Then in July of 2012, having already put his signature to a legal document requiring him to have another physician supervise him, he attended a homebirth by himself. The baby died and, as in the previous cases, the findings of the inquiry included malpractice and gross negligence. At that point Biter was stripped of his license.
According the Medical Board’s order, Biter has now agreed that if he ever asks the Medical Board or any other health care licensing agency to reinstate his license or grant him a new license, “all of the charges and allegations” in that accusation will be considered true and correct and could be used against him in the application process.
[gview file=”http://www.skepticalob.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Biters-license-suspension.pdf”]
Dr. Biter has no license, no malpractice insurance, has filed for bankruptcy to prevent those he injured from collecting legal judgments against him. Now he’s opening a birth center!
Biter declined to answer a series of questions from NBC 7 Investigates. However, he did send a statement, expressing deep concern for the Lukacses.
“The loss of [their] baby was a horrible tragedy and was devastating to all involved,” Biter wrote. “It is absolutely heartbreaking, and despite their animosity towards me, I extend my deepest sympathies to the Lukacses…”
Biter also said he is “committed to ensuring no other family is faced with a similar tragedy.” He also confirmed that, “I am no longer practicing medicine in California…”
Biter is still receiving support from homebirth advocates:
UTC resident Kelli Auld said Biter delivered her daughter, who is now 2. Auld has known the doctor for six years and considered him “a member of our family.”
“To me, it’s a travesty he can’t practice there. I know he’s going to find all the people who are trained and have the expertise to run an amazing birth center,” Auld told NBC 7. “There’s no one I would trust most with my body, my baby, with future babies.”
“There’s nobody like Dr. Biter. We feel at a loss that we can’t have him as our doctor anymore,” Auld said.
Biter denies that he will attend patients at the Center:
Biter told NBC 7 Investigates that he will not “be providing clinical services at Babies By the Sea Birthing Center, where my role will be purely administrative.”
But Amber and Michael Lukacs insist that Biter’s presence at this center is a danger.
“It’s Robert Biter’s birth center, so he’s inherently involved in everything,” Amber said. “I don’t believe he’s going to sit in the back office and push paper.”
I suspect that his supporters don’t believe that he’s going to sit back and just push paper, either, and that is evil.
Of course homebirth advocates, particularly professional homebirth advocates, can easily prove me wrong. I’d like to see Ina May Gaskin, Henci Goer, Melissa Cheyney and other professional homebirth advocates publicly call for Biter’s dismissal from the Birth Center. If they truly care about homebirth safety, they would be shouting from the rooftops that unsafe practitioners should be banned and punished.
Any homebirth advocate who doesn’t protest against Dr. Biter’s involvement in this Birth Center is part of the pervasive evil in the homebirth movement, allowing a babyslaughterer to continue in their midst as if the lives of the people he hurt and the lives of the baby who died are utterly irrelevant.
This guy in in NH now, was he run out of Cali? http://sacredtransitionsmidwifery.org/board
I wouldn’t assume so, it says he’s on the board which wouldn’t necessarily require physical relocation.
Sacred Transitions is associated with a certain narcissistic midwife who was the subject of a post a couple months back… the same midwife who burst onto the Sarah Buckley thread and threatened everyone with a lawsuit for bringing up her past
An alarming number of board members are legally barred from practicing in their home states.
Has anyone seen this? Unbelievable..
http://evidencebasedbirth.com/class-bring-waterbirth-back/
According to the “Stop Robert Biter” Facebook page, one of Biter’s former partners, Dr. Nick Capetenakis, was at the protest.
Hmm interesting. I have never heard Dr. Cap bad mouth Dr. Biter but that is just the sort of class act he is. I orignially joined Dr. Biter’s office when I was unahppy with the care our first ob provided at our oldest child’s birth. Dr. Cap was at that time his partner and I started seeing Dr. Cap when Dr. Bter became so “famous” that he would leave people waiting in his office for hours- I had a toddler and couldn’t wait two hours for a pap. When Dr. Cap decided to leave Dr. Biter’s practice I followed Dr. Cap and he delivered our youngest- I can’t say enough wonderful things about Dr. Cap (who has seen his own his wife thru three unmedicated hypnobirths-at a hospital). Dr. Cap has all of the charm and feel good bed side manner of Dr. Biter but seems to lack the desire for the spotlight and was always focused on patient care whereas Dr. Biter seemed very interested in flash. Not sure how exactly to explain it but Dr. Cap delivered what Dr. Biter promised and to my knowledge he doesn’t come with any iffy lawsuit baggage. Dr. Cap was happy to help us birth in any way that was medically safe and we were lucky that. that turned out being a hypnobirth VBAC a full week after our “guess date” (lots of doctors would not allow a VBAC to go past due). Our son had a cord wrapped around his neck and things got scary during the delivery but the serene calm and complete professionalism that Dr. Cap provided saw us thru and we truly could not have asked for better care or for a team of people more respectful of our wishes, completely opposite of the old school experience we had with our first birth (not with Cap or Biter). If you want the natural experience without the drama I suggest calling Dr. Cap.
I do wonder though- I mean if you deliver enough babies there are going to be some deaths. What action (or inaction) of Dr. Biter’s caused this death and could a competent and reasonable doctor have made the same choice? I have a friend who birthed her first baby with him and it was a terrible experience, I’m not defending him but the simple fact that a baby in his care died doesn’t seem sufficient to condemn him- what happened? I assume this couple chose home birth of their own free will? Or did he coerce or otherwise convince them to do it at home so he could attend the birth since his license was revoked? I’m sort of confused. Were there other deaths? Did he miss signs? It sounds like she could have gone to the hospital much sooner- then again I was at home in labor for a couple days before I went to the hospital so 22 hours of labor isn’t as long as it sounds- she wasn’t pushing that long- just contracting (I assume).
Glad you had a good delivery with Dr. Cap.
You can decide for yourself if Dr. Biter bears any responsibility for the Lukacs’ baby’s death–they are suing him, and the documents are available (for a fee) at the San Diego Superior Court website. I don’t know if he “coerced” them into homebirth, but he allegedly led them to believe that it was “better” than hospital birth and that his “state of the art” birth center would be ready by the time they delivered in June 2012. (It opened in Sept. 2014.) You can also see the documents from the Medical Board of California, which outline the lapses that led to his suspensions.
Meanwhile, an Australian OB has spent time in jail for allegedly ”butchering” a woman by excising too widely and taking her clitoris without her permission (while treating her for a vulval cancer).
This is inexcusable and has affected the woman’s life, but this person, while no exemplar of good practice, was neither a groper nor a “baby-killer”.
How is it that Biter can continue to be involved in the birth business?
Actually Sue, the ob you speak of had numerous perinatal deaths under his care (I believe 10 are now being reinvestigated) and 2 maternal deaths. He is a deeply disturbed individual. He in fact was a “grouper” and the woman who made the complainy regarding her clitoris surgery was not the only woman to make a comoaint. He performed non consensual hysterectomies, he refused to prescribe antibiotics which later saw the neonate die of sepsis.
Graeme Reeves has no business being in medicine.
Nor does Dr Biter
What is interesting is that I witnessed the same phenomenon with Graeme Reeves as I am seeking (via social media) with Dr Biter.
I encountered numerous women who suppported Reeves even when the evidence against him was damning and overwhelmingly undeniable.
Hi, Freya
I’m not fan of Reeves, but his eventual de-registration occurred because he breached orders not to practice obstetrics (he looked after a number of pregnant women at a rural hospital, having been dishonest about his suspension from OB practice).
His orders limiting his practice of OB related to ”his management of 9 obstetric patients. His treatment of one patient led to her death. In another case the death of a baby occurred. The life of another patient was endangered.” (From the Medical Tribunal transcript). As I recall, one of the issues was that he was unavailable to the hospital doctors he was meant to be supervising.
This man was a difficult person, difficult to work with and with limitations to his surgical skills and decision-making.
IN contrast, Biter appears to have had the charm which keeps people on his side, despite his outcomes. It;s interesting to contrast the public reaction to the two cases.
I don’t think it is that hard to contrast the two.
Reeves provided his services to a small rural nsw town desperate for an ob. He was hailed as a hero when he came to town. He was charismatic.
Biter provides his services to a section of the community crying out for a hero and for validation.
Reeves was dishonest in Bega.
Biter dishonest to the Lukacs’s and many others.
The wider community were outraged by Reeves and the wider community are outraged by biter.
But those close. Those who’ve perhaps used their services and don’t want to contemplate that possibly they made wrong choices…..
Not unlike, I believe, the situation with Lisa Barrett.
I remember women being very upset that they couldn’t have Reeves services.
He was also at a popular Sydney private hospital before going to Bega. I had a friend who had him as her obgyn for her first pregnancy. She really liked him and thought he had a great bedside manner – more so than the obgyn he referred her onto when he lost his hospital privileges before she gave birth (cranky obgyn still in practise, still known to have an abrupt manner but obviously the much better doctor).
My friend felt well cared for by him and also when he lost his right to practise, he found places for his existing patients and she felt the handover went well.. My friend was shocked by what happened and how he behaved and did doubt her choice. She didn’t stand by him and given what happened is relieved he was found out – but she did say he was very nice to her.
has Dr. Biter been accused of being a groper? I found him to be very touchy feely but never in the realm of sexual misconduct.
Several of my friends attended the protest yesterday at Babies by the Sea. And the the things they heard there made my hair stand on end: that Biter used to be ‘unavailable’ while on call, and that when he was, he would ask people to alter records to say THEY were on call. That he took money from his own practice that was supposed to go for malpractice insurance, leaving his partners unwittingly practicing bare. That he (just as Dr. Amy warned) took donations for that birth center that disappeared from the books. If ANY of these things is true, he has NO BUSINESS opening a birth center.
To say who was on call? I don’t get it. What’s the thing here?
It’s actually rather huge. (that seems silly even as I type it but it’s huge). If you are on call for your practice, you are supposed to be available by phone and ready and willing to come to the hospital when you are paged or needed). Apparently he would disappear, leaving the patients in his practice without any coverage. Then, after one of his partners had been called in to cover he would try and get that person to say that he had been on call all along. Which, just for starters is intellectually dishonest, not to mention unethical. This is the sort of thing that makes one lose hospital privileges, insurance coverage, and ultimately one’s license.
I can’t believe the other docs went along with that. I would be PISSED if someone routinely dumped their call responsibilities on me.
I bet they didn’t let him get away with that for very long.. I wonder if they turned him in to the board?
Looks like there was a reason he changed partners ever so often. From where I stand, it certainly looks like those other docs followed your train of thought.
Thanks. Oh, he has galls, that Biter.
By the way, can they open this centre without an OB with CURRENT license and hospital privileges overseeing it? And if not, who is the mad doctor realy to throw his lot in?
Yep – I have a friend who’s FIL is a dentist in a regional area and he doesn’t drink in an evening if he is on call for emergency dental work.
In California, CNMs must have physician supervision, while LMs/CPMs don’t, so if the center is all LMs/CPMs, I don’t think there has to be any physician involvement at all.
I’m sure area L & D units are really looking forward to receiving Babies By the Sea’s transfers. Let’s hope there are no repeats of the Lukacs’ trajedy.
Let me point out one thing. Homebirth advocates cheerfully tell us that “Babies die in the hospital, too!”
Why don’t they provide examples? There have been babies who died or were seriously harmed during or shortly after hospital birth as a result of medical negligence. This has happened. Some such cases have been discussed here.
Why don’t homebirth advocates call out such cases? Why aren’t the bad practitioners condemned and the parents supported?
Maybe it’s because their stories would show that the problem is rarely too much intervention, but rather interventions performed too late, incorrectly, or not at all.
Remember the whole thread where Dr Amy invited homebirth advocates to tell us about those babies who have died or been injured in the hospital? The only people trying to share stories were ones who regularly post here, mostly the doctors.
Well done!
https://www.facebook.com/stoprobertbiter
OT: Look at this idiotic drivel. http://www.jennifermargulis.net/blog/2014/09/why-doctors-nurses-and-other-medical-professionals-are-choosing-to-birth-at-home/ Of course one of the doctors she mentions is none other than the infamous Fischbein.
What’s really sad is that the NCB/homebirth crowd will actually believe it…
“hundreds, if not thousands”
She’s insane to state that based on a handful on anecdotes, and the comments reflect that same level of insanity:
“MY MOTHER WAS A QUALIFIED MIDWIFE & USED TO WORK IN THE CALCUTTA MEDICAL COLLEGE. AT THAT TIME ( SOME 55 YEARS BACK ) 99% MOTHER EXPERIENCED NORMAL DELIVERY & THEIR FEELINGS WERE DIVINE.BUT TODAY –…”
Maternal mortality rate in India 1982-1986 was 580 deaths per 100,000 live births. I don’t dare try to dig up the number how high exactly it was cca 55 years ago when mother was a qualified midwife and all birth in India was “99% of the time normal and feeling divine”.
Projected maternal mortality rate for India for 2015. is 139 dead mothers per 100 000 live births.
What Jennifer Margulis and her followers are suggesting is that being dead and dying in childbirth just like in good ole’ days is an acceptable cost of “normal delivery”. That’s not normal thinking and I hope women stop falling for her illiterate (and deadly) nonsense.
” ‘Experienced’ normal delivery”?
If ‘normal’ means being exposed to the natural mortality and morbidity of natural birth, I guess that’s true, and the ones who survived were likely to be very grateful. But those who died or lost their babies? Well, we won’t mention them, will we?
Now, they’ll wave all those doctors and nurses giving birth at home as another reason why we all should. No mentioning of the fact that likes tend to go to likes and most of those who flock to JM are as much of quacks as she is, regardless of their profession.
But my, is it easy to be a GP, OB, CNM, or neonatologists over there! I can be one, as well! All it takes is saying that I am. Here, we know our regular commenters who are also medical professionals are indeed what they claim they are because they participate in discussions on professional subjects, using professional knowledge. On JM’s site? Just say that you are! Isn’t homebirth glorious?
Illiteracy in the comments of the supposed medical professionals on that article, when compared with usually eloquent and spell checked comments of the medical professionals on this blog, makes one think that either there’s a bunch of NCB bots over there attempting to lend fake extra credibility to her ludicrous claims, or that the medical professionals who voice their support for homebirth over the internet are not as literate and as educated as those who are aware how dangerous and unsafe it is. 🙂
The illiteracy practically gave them away… what is truly sad is that the NCB crowd will fall for it, hook, line and sinker..
Bad spelling isn’t something that is likely to sway me. My own comments here are never spell checked (I mean no disrespect, I just have too much checking and editing in real life), past tense hates me and a good deal of my prepositions aren’t meant to come pageside, as a poster here once wrote. And still, I am a translator. Just a tired one who writes here in a hurry. It doesn’t necessarily strike me as odd if someone else does the same, although some of those posters really overdo it.
No, what gets to me is that everyone can say, “I am a neonatologist!”. Without anything in the post to lend some legitimacy to the claim, I am entitled to be skeptical.
There’s a world of difference between the tired translator off duty mistakes you make and those over there. The thought that some of them may actually be who they state they are is scary.
Well, I certainly hope there are no GPs in their ranks! I mean, all the stories about doctors who killed their patients because they could not write the right medicine on the prescription…
As it is, I can vividly imagine the following conversation:
Doctor receiving transfer: What the hell is this? Where do you think you are, the zoo?
Midwife: No, no, I meant occiput. I just write it OCTOPUS.
Doctor receiving transfer: Very interesting, considering the fact that this is an obvious breech.
LOL!
I attended the same undergrad as Biter (he was a few years ahead of me). He was a double major pre-med and theater. He claimed that the theater major would help him project a good bedside manner. One of my friends observed at the time, “hey, it’s not supposed to be an act, a doctor is supposed to actually care about the patient.”
How awful…your friend’s observation is correct!!!
Project a good bedside manner? Couldn’t the man simply try to be a theatre star? This way, he would have all the veneration he’s STIILL enjoying, and more, and all those women would have had their lady parts in better condition, let alone the Lucacs’ little girl who would have had a big brother.
If you can fake sincerity, you can conquer the world.
Too bad Biter wasn’t the one (well maybe he was) in that commercial, “I’m not a real doctor, I just play one on TV,” instead of playing one in real life and killing people..
Wow. That’s sociopathic.
Eh, I don’t take too much issue with that. I’m a veterinarian and while I do genuinely care about animals and their people, sometimes it’s all acting to be able to go into a room with a jerk client that is the one responsible for their pet’s condition and not scream at them. There absolutely is a “treatment room” face and a “client” face. I doubt that human doctors are any different.
We all need our game faces on when we’re working, particularly if clients are painful, difficult or otherwise irritating. And sometimes I need mine because I’m having a crap day/week and the client who is paying for me deserves a professionally delivered (as well as professional) outcome.
It’s a bit creepy though a student putting so much attention on their ‘presentation’.
It sounds to me like Stacy’s friend hit the nail on the head about Biter.. that he really didn’t care at all about the patient, but more about making sure he projected the persona of a caring physician..
I do take issue. I hate it when I have to deal with publishers whose knowledge about books and language is vastly inferior to mine but they act all superior because hey, they are the boss. Usually I manage to keep a straight face even when I see that they’ll maim my lovely translation for no better reason that a vocabulary containing more than 2000 words is beyond them. It’s a “work” face and everyone needs it.
But for a student to take a class to perfect this face is downright creepy. It blurs the line between clients and audience.
Image over substance. Enjoys the appearance of being a saviour and “helping” people without the responsibility of the tough calls that go along with that. I guess people would rather be lied to nicely than given the truth in a straightforward manner.
It looks like Biter removed the post with the warning and the links to Dr. Amy’s post and the News Report.. But the “Haters gonna hate” post is still there..
I’m not too great with computers so I don’t know how to do a screenshot.. but there is a post on his Babies by the Sea FB page warning people not to trust “ex-Dr. Biter” complete with links to Dr. Amy’s post and to an NBC article about Biter.. and this comment..
“The best part is that what you give, you get. Who could use a hug today?
Haters gonna hate. Huggers gonna hug.”
The guy is a sociopath..
‘First thing you gotta know about me – I’m a hugger!’. Lotso (evil sociopath teddy bear, Toy Story 3).
Love it! Great description! Sociopathic serial killers are known for their charismatic, persuasive personalities..
So are sociopathic cult leaders.
That’s for sure!
It blows my mind the desperation of the home birth community. If someone delivers babies at home, they can do no wrong in the eyes of home birthers. It’s disgusting.
Unless their baby dies.. then they are shunned..I think that’s even more disgusting..
That’s the part that really did it for me.
Women’s right to autonomy and to make her own choices? Fine.
Even if it costs the life or health of her unborn child? Fine.
A group of women who criticize, ostracize, manipulate and abuse loss families?
No. They don’t get to speak for other women, or to silence them.
Absolutely spot on.. I just don’t understand how they can be so hypocritical… they cheer these women on until a tragedy happens, then they turn them… it’s mind boggling to say the least.
meant to say “turn on them”
I work with a group of homebirth midwives. They are constantly analyzing other midwives’ practices to determine what is unsafe or unethical, and also which births they should refer out because of risk factors. These are topics of weekly if not daily discussion. There seem to be a few renegade midwives out there that take high risk cases, and aren’t as thorough in their practice, but claiming that all midwives act this way just shows everyone’s ignorance. Get to know 5 or 10 homebirth midwives, look at their practices in depth, and you will see it is a much different picture than what is being portrayed here.
Doula Dani knows more than 5 or 10 homebirth midwives. And it’s quite the hubris you demonstrate, insisting that the group of homebirth midwives you work with should be the norm, hailing your experience, and dismissing everyone else’s.
I can see why you don’t like the picture that is being described here. But it is supported by numerous study, including the pitiful joke of a study MANA tries to fool the gullible with, Your experience is supported by… well, your experience.
By the way, would you mind giving your name and the names of the lovely midwives you work with? The woman you’re accusing of ignorance has done so. For all I know, you might be Christy Collins or Jan Tritten scrambling for a way to make homebirth midwives look better. And if you aren’t willing, please refrain from trotting out your experience as equally valid to Doula Dani’s. In my eyes, and I think I can safely speak for many posters here, it isn’t.
On this blog alone, there have been disastrous births at the hands of many more than 5 or 10 midwives.
Perhaps you know CNMs, which are lauded here and held up as the standard that should be required in the US. I can’t imagine CPMs analyze anything – how could they, they don’t have any thorough knowledge of anatomy or pregnancy.
“Get to know 5 or 10 homebirth midwives, look at their practices in depth, and you will see it is a much different picture than what is being portrayed here.”
I wouldn’t really be able to do this because where I am this particular style of midwife would not be able to practise. They certainly would not be employed in the local integrated community midwifery program that provides free homebirth to women that meet the criteria for a homebirth.
It astounds me that the US accepts anything less, let alone allows the midwives so much free rein that they are able to hide adverse outcomes and deaths, shift states and perform the same style role elsewhere.
And I don’t particularly care to get to know them – part of the issue is these midwives get so entangled in the lives of their patients that professional boundaries get crossed. I’ve nothing against midwives – my mum was a RN before she retired and did her midwifery certificate in the 70s. However I am deadset against alt-med practitioners trying to pretend to be actual educated practitioners. If you want to be a homebirth midwife, fine, do your RN, get specialised in a post-grad qualification, get your hours up and experience in a busy hospital setting and maybe then look at practising homebirth. At least then you have an idea of what a safe practitioner ACTUALLY looks like, as opposed to those that are pretending and reading about this stuff on the internet…
So do you work with CNMs? Because that is the only way that I find what you are saying to be even remotely plausible. The supposed leaders of homebirth midwifery routinely advise risky, stupid practices. Jan Tritten crowdsourced information about Gavin Michael on Midwifery Today’s FB page. If she had simply told the midwife to take her patient to the hospital, he might be alive today. Instead, we got to hear a large number of supposed midwifery professionals spouting off about how 0 amniotic fluid wasn’t a big problem. Look at any of the garbage being trotted out by people like Gloria LeMay, Ina May, etc. With leadership like this, how on earth can you tell us with a straight face that we are the ones who are ignorant?
Danger to women? Check!
Danger to babies? Check!
Habitual Liar? Check!
Disrespects patients? Check!
Paternalistic? Check!
Male? Check!
OB? Check!
Sounds like the exact doc they would hate, and would run from, if they care about any of the things they claim too.
But, there is more, and it erases all of the above to the NCB squad-
Professes belief in NCB, loves HB, and has killed a baby during a HB.
CHECK!
…and with that, he enters sainthood here he will be worshipped, admired, loved, and given innocent babies as sacrifice to HB.
Ah staceyjw, have a heart. If they turn their backs on “Dr” Biter, they’ll have, well, four doctors supporting them. Count them: Wagner, Declercq, Fischbein, Romm. All of four.
They need health professionals to make their documentaries, do their killings, and lend support to their fimage (can you guess what did I coin this word from?)
Isn’t Fischbein the sex offender with no boundaries?
Are they still claiming him?
No ladies.
That is not a man you want to be in bed with. Literally or figuratively.
He is. And they still praise his professionalism. I’ve read opinions that his sexual predator role had nothing to do with his OB/Gyn role.
But then, I’ve read opinions that Biter is a great OB, just not such a grea gyn.
Is that the same way Ray Rice is a great football player, and not such a great husband, and the football has nothing to do with his marriage…so…go Ravens!
(See, I’m paying attention to current American cultural references, and the above is sarcastic.
IMO Ray Rice should never play another professional football game again).
Sexual predators, by definition, cannot be good doctors, and should not be able to earn money from any work related to using their medical training. Fischbein should not be working in the healthcare sector in any capacity, because his previous behaviour has shown he cannot be trusted. Full stop.
“He didn’t try to have sex with his pregnant patients, just the non-pregnant ones” is not a defence.
I don’t know who RR is but I agree about pregnant and non-pregnant patients!
Great analogy!
Dear Dr Bradbury was considerate enough to choose dying children as his victims, no doubt thinking that at least they wouldn’t grow up traumatised. Or, more likely, not thinking at all, just indulging his despicable urges. Agree totally that people like that should never work in medicine again. What a wilful squandering of talents and resources.
People like that should be drawn and quartered.
Interesting they make that claim when he had sex with a patient recovering from surgery thAt HE performed
And Biter’s malpractice also includes OB cases
I don’t know whether it included those at the time I read those comments. But even if it did, it was clearly a conspiracy to get rid of the only NCB-friendly doctor in the USA and the bestest best in the world.
I’ve said it before, but he went to a very good residency program and won all sorts of awards while in training. I can only wonder what the story is..
Maybe drugs? I’ve known a few high-performing people who managed to hide a substance abuse problem for years until suddenly the facade cracked.
Guesteleh may be right – people do go off the rails sooner or later with a drug problem.
Like the lovely Dr Myles Bradbury, who won the respect and gratitude of paediatric cancer patients’ parents while secretly sexually assaulting those same children. Great doctor, evil human being. So not really a great doctor at all, actually.
I haven’t heard of this one.
What a despicable being. I refuse to call him human.
I’m not in the USA, but I’ve been reading that abortion clinics are being regulated out of existence on the excuse of “protecting women’s health”. Yet THIS is allowed to happen??
Inane isn’t it?
No, insane.
It’s only ideologically consistent if you define the apex of women’s health to be the ability to produce as many babies as possible while using as few resources as possible.
I saw on his FB page that Oprah & Gayle are supporting him, and interviewed him, or some such thing. Great. Cue the talk-show hosts. That’ll make him a REAL EXPERT in the homebirth community. Perhaps Oprah gave him some financial support toward Babies By The Sea, seeing as he’s filed for bankruptcy? I just don’t see how he can get it off the ground, but apparently, it officially opens this week. He’s having some crazy Reggae festival to raise money or something. Damned ding-a-ling!!!
Oprah must know about his legal history. If she does, and she still supports him…ugh.
Ugh is right!
And that book by the faker…”a million tiny pieces” or something like that?
This really makes me mad. I used to be a huge fan of Oprah, but between her promotion of quacks like Dr. Oz and sociopaths like Dr. Biter, I’m just becoming downright disgusted by her.
Off topic, but apparently Vickie Sorensen found great comfort in Biter’s Oprah post, as she’s also being “persecuted.” /eyeroll
This man is truly pathological. I am horrified by his complete inability to admit any wrongdoing and his insistence on continuing to endanger women and children.
Ugh. He is horrific. Also…his instagram bio states the following “MD. OBGYN. Founder Babies by the Sea Birthing Center keeping birth sacred. Monkey lover, duck owner, art collector and theatre fan” and then he has a link to the birth center. This guy is a criminal.
Actually, when I first saw his pic with Oprah on the Babies by the Sea FB page, he sort of reminded me of Ted Bundy, the serial killer…
Is there not a process available in the US Justice system, that could order this individual to stay away from birth centers or pregnant women in the name of public safety???
Not really… it’s hard to get an injunction telling someone to “stay away from pregnant women”. Usually you can only get a restraining order for a specific person or to stay away from schools and kids if the person has a abuse history and is on the sex offender registry.
I will be interested to read Navelgazing Midwife’s response
She’s already discussed it on facebook. She’s been critical of Biter for a while now and, iirc, she plans to attend a protest on his birth center.
NGM is this really weird mix of honest reflection and rigid, dogmatic thinking. I get whiplash reading her posts.
She seems to be a highly conflicted person in many ways. But she did work with him, and probably knows him better than most of the protesters.
NGM has seen lots of crazy stuff! She’s just bee a “certified student of life” so long I’d be surprised if she wasn’t conflicted. Love her open-mindedness.
She seems quite conflicted indeed. But for a few years, Dr Wonderful has been a topic on which no one could move her from her stance. She got a lot of flack because of it on her blog. There was even that inane commenter asking, “Do you know the truth? Have you spoken to him?” as if he would tell Barb the truth if only she asked prettily. She reoplied with, “Yes, I know the truth. It’s in the documents. And no I haven’t spoken to him. Why should I?”
Considering that most of the NCB nuts never do any soul searching I give her credit for opening her mind to being wrong even if she is still into quite a bit of woo.
The good news is, this will probably never happen. Biter has been promising this place since he lost his privileges at Scripps, and it has never gotten off the ground.
it’s odd he doesn’t give more info on who is working there on the website….just what he wants it to be. He is so creepy!
Apparently it’s opening this weekend…
Here is the announcement from the Babies by the Sea Pinterest board.
I want to see the Rasta Pony.
Also, seems like an odd choice of party for a birth center.
“____ By The Sea” is probably a common name for any business near a beach, but I’m still reminded of a certain place near me called Chapel By The Sea… it’s a funeral home. >_>
Hmm, might be right next door to Biter’s, or maybe an affiliate..
OMG… “Pacific Medical Waste” is one of his sponsors… ugh! That’s just morbid…
I had no idea he had so many sanctions and charges . . .
By the squeals of his worshippers you would think he was a saint being persecuted, not a deadly sociopath known to kill and maim.
I protested on the birthing center’s FB page. Within 5 hours, my common was deleted and I was banned. I only asked why Biter had money to open a center but failed to pay his court judgments. “Dr” Biter is a really classy guy. I can’t join the protest this Saturday but if anyone can, please come.
Yes!! “Dr” Biter. How come the homebirthers don’t give him the quotes like that? He’s *far, far* less of a doctor than Dr. Amy!
Ask Oprah, who just interviewed him, apparently! Ugh!
WTF!!!
WTF, indeed! Has Oprah jumped in the woo train as well? Shame on her.
Um, Oprah’s been on the woo train for years. Dr. Oz, Deepak Chopra….
Jenny McCarthy
But they are all people who don’t have deaths and injuried directly related to them, confirmed by a licensing body that had penalized the people committing the wrongdoing.
To me, the fact that Biter was stripped of his license makes it all worse. Sure, Oprah and the woo brigade can bleat about smears and lobbies. But when he’s been proven guilty in such a way?