When there is good reason to suspect that parents are deliberately inducing their child’s illness, nurses may be best placed to gather sufficient evidence. Sue Bradley examines the ethical implications of covert video surveillance

Since Meadow (1) first described Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy in 1977 the fact that parents may deliberately induce illness in their child has been slowly accepted. Now called fictitious or induced disorders, these types of behaviour are located within the sphere of child abuse, recognised as being particularly deviant and dangerous (2).