The facts: Madeleine McCann is alive and well or a long time deceased.

[John]

The facts: Madeleine McCann is alive and well or a long time deceased.

Whichever way you look at the Madeleine McCann case it always comes down to not three but two scenarios.

Madeleine is either alive and well and being looked after by someone or she is a long time deceased.

[John]

Both outcomes are rather bleak for all sorts of reasons.

If she is alive and well and being shielded within some obscure community then she will only be aware of that existence and of those people around her.  She will have for all intents and purposes integrated with that community.

Given her tender age at the time of her kidnap she will have few if any memories of her pre abduction existence.  She will have moulded a life for herself in a community which she considers to be home and a family which she considers to be her own.

One wonders then if she is eventually found what is crueller, to leave her where she is or to remove her to a life which she will consider alien to her entire existence?

She may also be a long time dead, either way the outcome for Maddie is not all that it is made out to be.

[Mrs. B]

Nope, don't agree with that, none of the girls abducted & later found were fine & looked after, neither were they dead. They were snatched & held captives against their will, though these girls were older than Madeleine, that's sadly a possibility that cannot be discarded.

[sadie]

Nope, don't agree with that, none of the girls abducted & later found were fine & looked after, neither were they dead. They were snatched & held captives against their will, though these girls were older than Madeleine, that's sadly a possibility that cannot be discarded.

I agree, Mrs B

Unhappily John, what you are saying is also true in that Madeleine will have an awful time trying to readjust.  Her family too.

Seems to me that she is bound to be psychologically damaged.

One thing is quite certain, and that is that she cannot be left with people who abduct.




I think that she will have memories of her daddy and possibly her mummy and the twins.  Gerry was very involved with all his kids.  A noisy boistrous terrific dad. 

Kate was a kind and loving mother to Madeleine ... and still is to the twins.



I think she will remember bits, so long as she hasn't been deliberately mind programmed/ treated in any way to forget her past.  Pray God she hasn't.

[John]

Nope, don't agree with that, none of the girls abducted & later found were fine & looked after, neither were they dead. They were snatched & held captives against their will, though these girls were older than Madeleine, that's sadly a possibility that cannot be discarded.

Madeleine was only a few days from her fourth birthday when she was abducted.  As such she will have little if any memory of that era now that she has just passed her tenth birthday.   The girls which have recently been liberated in the USA were abducted as teenagers with memory faculties which were well developed.  Madeleine however falls into a completely different category.   She will have little or no memory of her parents or siblings.

Infantile amnesia is the tendency to have few autobiographical memories from below the age of 5. Although autobiographical memories start forming between the ages of 2 and 3 and can be remembered for several months, they are nearly always forgotten by adulthood. This can be attributed to lack of memory rehearsal; young children do not engage in rehearsal of remembered information. There are two theoretical explanations for why this may occur; although they take different approaches, they are not mutually exclusive of each other.

In young children memory properly develops after the age of 5 years.

[AnneGuedes]

Madeleine was only a few days from her fourth birthday when she was abducted.  As such she will have little if any memory of that era now that she has just passed her tenth birthday.   The girls which have recently been liberated in the USA were abducted as teenagers with memory faculties which were well developed.  Madeleine however falls into a completely different category.   She will have little or no memory of her parents or siblings.

Infantile amnesia is the tendency to have few autobiographical memories from below the age of 5. Although autobiographical memories start forming between the ages of 2 and 3 and can be remembered for several months, they are nearly always forgotten by adulthood. This can be attributed to lack of memory rehearsal; young children do not engage in rehearsal of remembered information. There are two theoretical explanations for why this may occur; although they take different approaches, they are not mutually exclusive of each other.

I agree with you, John. Either dead or alive and fine, though for obvious reasons I don't believe in nice people adopting a child abducted on order. Only degenerated people could make a child (a baby is a different case) pass through hell and I'm weighing my words.

[John]

As support for what I have posted I can add my own personal experience which some might find alarming.

When I was arrested in Spain in August 2003 my youngest son was 5½ years of age.  When I next saw him in May 2007 he was barely 9½ years of age and had no prior memory of me even though I effectively spent every day with him since he was born.  Thus my reasoning for saying that if Madeleine is ever found she will have little or no recall of her former life.

[Mrs. B]

So if Madeleine is held captive we should just leave her there as she might not remember her previous life? Total madness. It's against the law to kidnap children, the people responsible will have to serve long prison sentences. Should the persons responsible be the same who have kept her, she would never be allowed to stay with them anyway.

Also, memory is something very personal, YOU may not remember anything before you were five, a lot of people start having memories from a lot earlier.

[John]

So if Madeleine is held captive we should just leave her there as she might not remember her previous life? Total madness. It's against the law to kidnap children, the people responsible will have to serve long prison sentences. Should the persons responsible be the same who have kept her, she would never be allowed to stay with them anyway.

Also, memory is something very personal, YOU may not remember anything before you were five, a lot of people start having memories from a lot earlier.

It is most uncommon for anyone to have many memories of their pre school years but don't take my word for it.  Just do a simple search as it is all there.  Here's a start > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_memory

I didn't say that Madeleine should not be handed back to her parents if she is eventually found.  What I did state is that doing so will create a trauma for her all over again.  I think its called for the greater good or for the benefit of the child.

[Claudia]

She is 10 now I think so the longer this goes on the more difficult it will be for her is as you say she is eventually rescued.    She wont see it that way though....a no win situation for all involved imo.

It is most uncommon for anyone to have many memories of their pre school years but don't take my word for it.  Just do a simple search as it is all there.  Here's a start > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_memory

I didn't say that Madeleine should not be handed back to her parents if she is eventually found.  What I did state is that doing so will create a trauma for her all over again.  I think its called for the greater good or for the benefit of the child.

[AnneGuedes]

It is most uncommon for anyone to have many memories of their pre school years but don't take my word for it.  Just do a simple search as it is all there.  Here's a start > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_memory

I didn't say that Madeleine should not be handed back to her parents if she is eventually found.  What I did state is that doing so will create a trauma for her all over again.  I think its called for the greater good or for the benefit of the child.

I agree, better care for the benefit of the child than condemn a guilty one.

[Mrs. B]

If is for the benefit of the child that she has to returned to her parents & family, she has two siblings & an extended family. If, being held captive, she may also be aware that she IS a missing child. Severe forms of punishment for those who are involved in child snatching & trafficking is of paramount importance to society as a whole.

[AnneGuedes]

If not a captive, but the beloved child of a nice family, how would Solomon judge ?

[Mrs. B]

Not the bible again, you are fixated on fiction. We all KNOW what Salomon did. If found, she will be returned to her family, regardless. It's simply the law, live with it.

[AnneGuedes]

Not the bible again, you are fixated on fiction. We all KNOW what Salomon did. If found, she will be returned to her family, regardless. It's simply the law, live with it.

"regardless" ? I don't think you know what Solomon did. Solomon doesn't give lessons of normative maternity.