TELEVISION: DOING WELL AT DOING GOOD

Imagine your four-year-old boy--healthy, cheerful, with a bright future you take for granted--suddenly swept into an epileptic seizure. He goes stiff; his eyes roll up; his jaw is clenched. Except for his piglet squeals, he might have been dead for a minute or two. Children during grand mal attacks seem possessed; in the New Testament, epilepsy is referred to as a "demon." So the mother of an epileptic boy first looks at doctors as exorcists. But as she sees them prescribe a series of harsh medications, each creating side effects that the next is supposed to treat, she wonders if they...