SPRINGFIELD - Dr. Ellen Feinberg should not work as a pediatrician after stabbing her sons, a state agency said in suspending her medical license.

The Illinois Department of Professional Regulation temporarily suspended her license Wednesday. The doctor, who is now in a mental hospital, can challenge the suspension at a hearing at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 20 in Chicago.

?If she is unable to appear to contest it, the suspension will continue indefinitely,? said agency spokesman Tony Sanders.

The agency said a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity in the stabbing death of Adam Feinberg, 10, was the principal reason for the suspension.

?I am of the opinion that the continued practice of medicine by the respondent presents an immediate danger to the safety of the public,? Dr. Mary Blanks, chief medical coordinator for the agency, said in an affidavit.

Judge Michael Jones last month found Feinberg, 44, innocent by reason of insanity in the fatal stabbing of Adam and the attempted murder of Matthew Feinberg, 6, in their Cherry Hills home on Feb. 28, 2002.

A few days later, Jones ruled that Feinberg was an unfit mother based on the killing of a child, which is one of the criteria under Illinois law for such a finding.

The judge ruled that Feinberg is in need of being locked up indefinitely for mental health treatment in a secure state facility.

She was returned to the mental health center in Elgin, where she has been held most of the last year.

Sanders said Feinberg's medical license expired in 1999.

Even though she gave up her practice then, he said, the possibility loomed that she might attempt to resume it after leaving the mental hospital.

?With any medical license that has been expired for that short of a period of time, she could (ordinarily) pay a fee and get the license back immediately,? Sanders said.

Sanders did say he was unaware of any effort by the doctor to renew her license.

?By the date of the hearing, we should have a better idea if she intends to contest the suspension or not,? he said.

Steve Beckett, the Urbana attorney who represented Feinberg in the murder trial, said the physician would not contest the suspension.

?Ellen Feinberg is concentrating on regaining her mental health,? Beckett said.

The Department of Professional Regulation did not have a record of a medical license for an Ellen M. Feinberg but did have one for an Ellen M. Hochberg, her maiden name.

Sanders said earlier that license was obtained in July 1990.

There was no record of disciplinary action against the license holder.