Judith Bannon, executive director of SIDS of Pennsylvania and founder of Cribs for Kids (www.cribsforkids.org), applauded the Saving Babies project and said the organization hopes to use the series to rally infant safety advocates to lobby for standardized infant death investigations and review nationwide. 

     Some medical professionals are strongly defending the findings of the Scripps Howard News Service on sudden infant death. They are alarmed to learn that coroners from 157 counties -- the largest being Omaha, Neb. -- reported no accidental suffocations during the last five years. "You’ve gotten the story right. Excellent journalism," said Dr. James Kemp, a nationally prominent SIDS researcher at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

Scripps Howard's latest findings that there is a small, but growing, number of coroners in America who report most infant deaths were actually accidental suffocations is drawing fierce debate around the nation. "Once again, this Scripps News Service series implies that SIDS is a diagnosis usually made in ignorance or laziness by coroners and medical examiners," said Ventura County, Calif., Medical Examiner Ronald O'Halloran.

The following comment was posted on the Idaho Statesman's Web site in response to a "Saving Babies" project story about infanticide.Wake Up GuysSubmitted by buckshot on Mon, 11/19/2007 - 8:20am.<

Long-time SIDS activist Suzette Gripp of Tennessee has decided to extend the lifespan of her Global 2000 SIDS Questionnaire, an attempt to solve the mystery of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome through voluntary participation of families who've lost their babies.Suzette originally had planned to stop accepting data from SIDS parents after 6 1/2 years.

Chuck Mihalko, executive manager of the SIDS Network, is urging his members to participate in Scripps Howard's "Saving Babies" project and calling on them to contact their legislators to demand change.