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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Dad accused of torture a renowned pediatrician
Dr. Melvin Morse (CP)
PHILADELPHIA -- The Delaware father of five children who was arrested Tuesday for "waterboarding" his 11-year-old daughter is a internationally known pediatrician who specializes in so-called near-death experiences.
Dr. Melvin Morse, who has written books on children and near-death experiences, has appeared on numerous TV shows including Oprah, Larry King Live, 20/20 and Good Morning America to talk about his research.
State troopers have charged Morse, 58, with multiple felony counts of endangering the welfare of a child after the girl told social workers about her father's punishments.
Morse is the author of Closer to the Light: Learning from the Near Death Experiences of Children, which is subtitled Amazing Revelations of What it Feels Like to Die.
On his website, spiritualscientific.com, he expounds on the "gaseous vapor theory of the soul" and claims to have "done more to prove the existence of life after death than any other scientist."
Police said the girl told investigators Morse held her face under a running faucet causing water to flood up her nose and keeping her from breathing. The girl said Morse called the punishment "waterboarding." Police did not know what provoked the doctor to discipline the girl in that manner, but said the girl's mother witnessed several of the incidents but did not stop them.
Morse and his wife were arrested at their Georgetown home and forbidden to have any contact with the 11-year-old and her five-year-old sister. The two girls are in the care of the state's family services, police said.
Police could not say if Morse's punishments had been conducted as experiments on his daughter.
Morse's online biography describes him as a "best-selling" author who was named in Best Doctors in America as one of the nation's top pediatricians.
-- The Philadelphia Inquirer
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 10, 2012 A22
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