Mother Sentenced For Selling Her Baby (Gets 15 Days)

KOMO TV ^ | 04/25/2003 | KOMO Staff & News Services

[DeepInEnemyTerritory]

KENT - Virginia Ramsey was sentenced in Kent Friday for selling her 3-month-old son.

She will spend 15 days in jail, 75 days in electronic home detention and 30 days of community service.

King County Superior Court judge Richard McDermott also sentenced her to a year of probation, saying, "I still find it amazing, to some degree inexplicable," that she could give a child away or sell it.

The 29-year-old Kent woman had admitted in court that she would be found guilty, but insists she thought the transaction was a kind of adoption. She says the $2,000 she received was a loan.

She says she was unable to care for the 3-month-old boy at the time two years ago because of her drinking and drug use and that she was desperate. The boy has been adopted by another family.

She admitted turning her life around is very difficult, called the judge's decision fair, and said it is her hope now that she can go to college, turn her life around and get a professional job.

A man who arranged the transaction was sentenced to 30 days of work release. The woman accused of buying the baby pleaded innocent and is scheduled for trial May 15.

[DeepInEnemyTerritory]

Gee, that Judge sure was hard on her. (Sarcasm off)

[justshutupandtakeit]

The child is better off being sold when a mother wants to sell it.

[ChemistCat]

The adoption system in this country is so screwed up. She didn't leave the baby in a dumpster, or abort, and odds are good that this has been a pretty painful experience. I'd be quite content with the sentence if it included sterilization, but we don't do that...someone explain to me again why we don't do that?

[annyokie]

"She admitted turning her life around is very difficult, called the judge's decision fair, and said it is her hope now that she can go to college, turn her life around and get a professional job."

At 29? Get a grip. TG she sold the kid, he/she is better off.

[xm177e2]

The real question is whether the child went to a loving family or into the hands of some pervert. That should make the difference between a very harsh penalty and a milder one.

[Jhoffa_]

I don't know how I feel about this.

I don't think it's beneficial to turn children into something to be bought, sold and bartered at all.

In this case however, I am glad she sold it as opposed to going off the deep and and doing a Susan Smith or a what's-her-name in Texas. If she's (by her own admission) drinking heavily and on drugs, I would say that's a possibility.

I am just glad everyone is alright.. It could have been allot worse.

[ImphClinton]

I would support a law that would allow a mother to sell her baby to the State for a set amount. In exchange she would have to use monitored birth control from then on.

This would be far better for children whose mothers would sell them than to be raised by those mothers. The amount should be no more than $2,000 plus medical care during the pregnancy. It could be supported by fees to adoptive parents for the most part.

[ALS]

If you allow that then it's a small step before the State realizes that as a citizen of the State, babies are a privilege. Then comes licensing, next you'll have to prove you would make a better guardian, and so forth and so on.

soylent scream...

[Texas Eagle]

King County Superior Court judge Richard McDermott also sentenced her to a year of probation, saying, "I still find it amazing, to some degree inexplicable," that she could give a child away or sell it.

You gotta be kidding me. She could've had the baby's brains violently sucked out moments before it was fully delivered and she would've been perfectly within her "Constitutional" rights.

THAT'S amazing.

[slasher82]

Yes, I'm curious also, because I know someone that can perform a very painful (OH, I MEAN PAINLESSSSSSSS) sterilization procedure for very little down with low interest.

[Walnut]

whats the difference between her selling her child and an adoption agency taking money? Or do they not take money?
If she was on drugs and out of control it seems to me it was better than putting the kid in a dumpster

[DeepInEnemyTerritory]

A Black Diamond man accused of helping his ex-girlfriend sell her baby for money she allegedly used to fund a shopping spree and pay a traffic ticket pleaded guilty yesterday to attempted child selling.

Kenneth S. Slape, 35, faces a sentence of up to a year in jail for the gross misdemeanor charge. King County prosecutors will recommend a three-month term at his Feb. 14 sentencing, spokesman Dan Donohoe said.

Slape initially was charged with child selling, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Charging papers say he agreed to help Virginia C. Ramsey sell her baby son in June 2001 after she had been complaining about the boy, then nearly 4 months old.

Ramsey, 28, told a Kent neighbor the baby was "getting on her nerves" and she couldn't handle him, charging papers say. The neighbor said Ramsey had just received an eviction notice and had to pay or move out.

Slape called his ex-wife, Tina B. Anderson of Kennewick, who agreed to take the baby and "give Ramsey some money to help her get on her feet," according to charging papers.

The three met at a Fred Meyer store in Covington where Anderson gave Ramsey an envelope full of $100 bills, charging papers say. Ramsey said she received $2,000 and that Slape told her she would get an additional $3,000 once the "adoption" was formalized, police said.

Prosecutors say she spent some of the cash to buy two Sony PlayStations, groceries and a VCR and spent some at a casino. Ramsey's 9-year-old son later told police his brother was adopted by "someone in Spokane that lives on a ranch," according to charging papers.

Anderson, 38, told detectives she consulted with lawyers before getting involved in the "adoption," and Ramsey claimed she gave up parental rights to her son, charging papers say.

The baby was taken into protective custody and examined at a hospital the next day. No serious medical problems were found, charging papers say, and the boy was placed in a foster home.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134617149_babyseller17m.html

[DeepInEnemyTerritory]

I don't like the idea of selling your child with almost no consequence.
On the other hand, she did the right thing by finding a new home for the child she clearly could not take care of properly. I do not want to discourage other mothers from taking that option verses dumping the baby into a dumpster, and taking this woman to the woodshed could lead someone else to make the wrong decision regarding their unwanted child.
I'm just glad the baby is OK. I think the judge should have ordered her to be on some type of birth control for at least a few years.

[ImphClinton]

Don't follow you.

All I am suggesting is a volunatry program. No mother would be forced to sign onto the program. She would simply sign a binding contract. That contract would require birth control for a set period of time or until certin conditions are met. She need not sign it. She could get an abortion or have the child as she desires. Although I would support making abortion illegal after the first trimester.

[Feiny]

Oh well, as long as the money was well spent. I mean after all...she bought 2 play stations & a VCR! I guess she figured that was more important than the rent! What a cretin.

[shred]

Who was the judge? Jane Fonda?

[ALS]

It all sounds good at first, but so does socialism.
Hence my point. Do a google on the Hegelian Principle.

[ImphClinton]

We live in a strange society.

Millionairs can spend tens of thousands of dollars to addopt children yet the mothers of these children by law can not receive a penny.

These laws are wrong. I understand the need to not encourage the selling of babies but at the same time so many unwanted babies are misstreated. Seems some way could be found to make it not worth having a baby just for the money while at the same time rewarding mothers who give up their babies for a better home.

I'm glad this mother had a good time with the money she received. She will never get to enjoy her child. She can only have so many in a lifetime. Why shouldn't she get paid? She did go through the pain to have a baby and the pain of giving it away.