Anyone who believes that waterboarding is anything other than torture should read about the trial of best-selling pediatrician Melvin Morse. He's currently facing charges in Delaware that he waterboarded his own stepdaughter to punish her.
Asked in Sussex County Superior Court in Georgetown by prosecutor Melanie Withers to describe her stepfather's punishment, the girl replied: "Waterboarding."
She said he would hold her head in the sink and "run water up my nose so I couldn't breathe. I was scared, and I felt like I was going to die."
She said he waterboarded her once for accidentally spilling milk and another time for getting sick and vomiting.
The girl is the daughter of Morse's wife, Pauline, who
was arrested back in 2012 along with Morse after her daughter claimed Morse waterboarded her at least four times in a year. Pauline, who was accused of witnessing at least some of the incidents and not doing anything to stop them,
pleaded guilty last year to three counts of misdemeanor child endangerment and is due to testify against her husband.
Morse stands accused of child endangerment, reckless endangerment and conspiracy. His attorney says that the incidents that his stepdaughter complained about were actually times when he washed her hair--something she hated. However, he did admit his client jokingly referring to it as waterboarding. How in the world does a parent joke about waterboarding his or her own child?
To put it mildly, this is horrible if true. But one thing is beyond all doubt--if it is unacceptable to waterboard a child, it is unacceptable period.