I remember seeing a case of a woman who was in severe PPD and her husband, instead of staying home to help her when she was in obvious distress, went to play golf all day on a Saturday. He returned and wanted to know where the baby was -- she didn't even REMEMBER the baby and it took forever to find out she taken the baby out, drowned and buried it and then gone home and to bed...
There's plenty of women and men who physically abuse their children or in some cases one of many children, and I have absolutely zero sympathy for them when they kill their children. PPD is not in the same category.
That doesn't answer the question of equal protection for that baby. We have got to get a grip on ourselves and say right is right and wrong is wrong.
This in word and deed is no different from the terrorists who behead people. Should we listen to their rationale of what could lead them to do such a thing? Should we pity them? Or should we seek justice for those who were wronged?
There was a victim in this atrocity already it was the baby who had her arms cut off by her own mother. We have to stop rationalizing murder. We can ask why but we have to stop excusing.
I once worked for a babysitting service. Once the service sent me to a very beautiful upper middle class home. The lady of the house looked like a young Kathleen Turner. In the middle of giving me the usual baby care details for her infant son, she started crying and telling me about her problems. My heart went out to her. I told her that I hated to see her in so much pain and that she should see her doctor ASAP because there was medication available that would make her feel 100% better. A couple of months later I read in the newspaper that she had shot her baby son in the head then turned the gun on herself. She died, and the bahy survived with brain damage. It was such a terrible tragedy and so unnecessary if only she had sought treatment.