Posted on 02/21/2012 9:43:50 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
A family court judge who ruled that a pregnant woman with schizophrenia should undergo an abortion and be sterilized sharply defended her decision yesterday, while denouncing Boston University for withdrawing what she said was a job offer amid the controversy.
In a rare personal defense of the reasoning behind a court ruling, Christina Harms, who retired from the bench last month after 23 years, said she concluded that the woman, a 31-year-old who suffered from delusions, would choose to terminate her pregnancy if she were mentally competent, chiefly so that she could resume antipsychotic medication that would have harmed the fetus.
I believed then, as I do now, that she would elect to abort the pregnancy to protect her own well-being, she said. She would want to be healthy.
Speaking in detail for the first time about the decision, which an appeals court reversed last month in unsparing terms, Harms described the case as a tragic set of circumstances for which no outcome would have been easy or obviously correct. The woman had described herself as very Catholic and expressed opposition to an abortion, while her parents were seeking consent for the procedure.
In a letter that she sent yesterday to other family court judges in Massachusetts, Harms outlined the reasons for her determination and criticized the appeals court ruling, which she called simplistic and unfair.
The appeals court ruled that the woman had clearly expressed her opposition to abortion as a Catholic, but Harms wrote that the statements of a person suffering from schizophrenia surely cannot simply be taken at face value.
Harms said she has requested a meeting with the chief judge of the appeals court to register her objection to the insulting tone of the decision.
She also stated that Boston Universitys law school rescinded a job offer shortly after her decision came to light, an abrupt move she said could discourage judges from making unpopular decisions.
It strikes at the heart of what judicial independence is about, she said. We need to protect judges from the popularity of the moment.
A BU spokesman said yesterday that the university never officially offered the job but acknowledged that it eliminated her from consideration for the job - a new position that would guide students toward judicial clerkships - after her ruling came to light and stirred public outcry.
more....
Good point.
bvw wasn’t by any stretch pro-life.
Especially since he was buds with the zotted forum trolls Burkeman1 and JohnGalt.
[Both of whom thought that our going after terrorists was somehow wrong.]
His posts would have been indicative of someone at that site?
Couldn’t find the text online but I’m sure it’s out there. Wonder if the Judge is applying international law, as in the “Law for Simplification of the Health System” and the “Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring” operative in the Reich in 1934. It’s for their own good, after all. Credit to Margaret Sanger.
He played it cool for the most part.
Tonight he slipped up.
He learned how to troll from JohnGalt.
Galt, upon being banned from here, went to a series of anti-Freeper sites, as did Burkeman1.
It isn’t beyond belief to say that they’ve kept in touch in some manner.
Wonder what sparked him off tonight?
What is good is that the witch judge got denied something she wanted for the tyrannical overreach.
I used to think I agreed with a large part of libertarianism until I educated myself about the LP platform. And if "small l" libertarians don't agree with the LP, why don't they think of another description. I call my self a Constitutionalist.
Your snide remarks do not enhance honest debate, btw. Oh, just saw this comment you made:
Individual libertarians have staked out quite self-consistent positions.
ROTFLOL! I haven't seen anything as funny in a long time. Not only are they not consistent, other than consistently lie and misrepresent their real views, but internally their view cancel each other out. Just like bvw - thinks forced abortion is fine, yet supposedly is all about "freedom" and "liberty".
You haven’t answered my question, I and some others are waiting for it. Hope you check in.
I thought sterilization of the mentally ill was outlawed in ALL states back in the 70s??? HOW can a judge make a determination to not only abort this baby, but also to force the woman to be sterilized against her wishes?
THIS is the problem with all those liberals who still idolize Margaret Sanger - probably the most well-known eugenicist that STILL receives “praise”. Sick, twisted people who have carried on this immoral and outrageous “philosophy” in their hearts and minds, but hide it behind a veneer of “mercy”. THEY are the ones that should be prevented from reproducing, but even I am not that CRUEL...
Not just this particular case, but in regards to Obamacare specifically? “Keep your laws off my body”, except when a liberal President and legislature decide THEY want to do it then it’s “OK”... I will NEVER understand their duality when it comes to these things - ditto for defending Islam while pretending to be “feminists” concerned about women’s rights. (They make comments about how “stupid” Christian women supposedly are - supposedly no-one female and Christian can think for themselves - but, defend Muslims who treat their women LITERALLY like property and who are afforded NO rights AT ALL???)
I will NEVER understand how people I know - who I know are intelligent - seemingly lose all semblance of logic when confronted on these issues. I honestly don’t even know how they live with themselves...
Good riddance to pro-death rubbish.
You have met very few to all appearances and are indulging in grand generalizations.
I’ve debated with libertarians on FR for years.
I know a few in real life too. I’d say utter selfishness is a common trait, and the inability to see what their utopian philosophy would be like in practice. Grand generalizations is certainly a grand generalization.
Let it be remembered that civil liberty consists, not in a right to every man to do just what he pleases, but it consists in an equal right to all citizens to have, enjoy, and do, in peace, security and without molestation, whatever the equal and constitutional laws of the country admit to be consistent with the public good.
John Jay
And apparently you only remember and note what affirms your predetermined view of them.
Consider how America’s own founding fathers must have appeared against the “reasonable” background of King George.
I’ve got an idea.
If you want to discuss the pros and cons of libertarianism, let’s discuss their actual platform.
But you often just like to debate in a strange passive/aggressive manner and I don’t have the stomach for it tonight.
“In
Assuming you return to the scene of the crime to revel in your own ashes, allow me to say this RE your electrical demise. It may sound familiar:
the particular circumstances of the case I do agree with the Judge.”
As for the rest of the people on the thread, Allow me to apologize for the asinine stupidity of my former classmate.
You beat me to the punch ;)
Not just there. More than a few of us got the ‘bully’ crap during the PDS wars. Some well known freepers were among the biggest offenders.
Just like the left, the charge would be made and their ‘posee’ was soon behind them. Didn’t work. The Zot!9000 got a bunch of them when their Romney/Paulbot roots broke ground a few weeks back.
And of course, this was/is some big conspiracy by JR, the mods and “Those infantile viking cats” as one called us.
“THEY are the ones that should be prevented from reproducing, but even I am not that CRUEL...”
Tempting....
On the 1970s bit: Remember that at that time, libs had not fully controlled the mental health field yet. The ‘non-liberal’ institutions became the target. Now that they are in charge of them all, it’s perfectly acceptable.
IE, banning sterilization was a purely political move.
Me too. I wonder if the real bvw was euthanized by the person who took over the account.
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