There is such tumult in the realm of child protection that the paediatric profession is experiencing a professional crisis, social work is disempowered, and childcare workers don't know whether they are coming or going.
The General Medical Council and the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence - the government body set up to promote 'healthcare regulatory excellence' - are on a mission to protect the public from doctors.
Political society is so unsettled if the state unequivocally takes the side of children, that it prefers to cross to the other side while professionals are disembowelled for their struggle to make sense of signs that crimes may be being committed against children.
But the law lords have just reminded the Government, the healthcare regulators, the professionals - and indeed, the public - what is supposed to happen when adults' and children's interests apparently diverge.
A case brought by adults, asserting that child protection doctors owed to them the same duty of care as to children, has been rejected by the law lords.
Giving judgement, Lord Nicholls tried to clarify whose interests are expected to prevail.
A duty imposed for the benefit of alleged victims could not be utilised for the benefit of alleged perpetrators. Lord Nicholls clarified both the difficulty and the duty - it is precisely when suspicions are aroused and investigation is ignited that the 'interests of parent and child are diametrically opposed'. The best interests of the child inscribed in the Children Act prevailed, and could not be compromised. If something did not feel 'quite right', doctors must 'act single-mindedly in the interests of the child'. Even if a doctor's suspicions proved to be unfounded, 'distressed' adults seeking to vindicate their reputation could not expose them to claims.
Furthermore, the special status of family life did 'not justify according a suspected parent a higher level of protection than other suspected perpetrators'.
Lord Brown added what could be regarded as a caution to the low-flying panic that prevails in child protection professions besieged by accused adults and berated by political rhetoric. Doctors have a vital part to play in 'combating the risk of child abuse. Nothing must be done to discourage them in that task'. Not even protecting the reputation of wrongly accused adults. GMC and CHRE, children's minister, Parliament, politicians - and public - take note.
