[SarahW]

I care because if the depression had been treated, her child would be alive.

I don't judge your lack sympathy for her suffering relative to her childs, but you might consider that recongnition and treatment of post-partum depression can prevent the suffering of children.

This wasn't baby blues, it was a pathologic chemical imbalance that could have been corrected with medicine.

[lmr]

There are more chemically imbalanced people who would never kill. Not under any circumstances.

[Mudbug]

This wasn't baby blues, it was a pathologic chemical imbalance that could have been corrected with medicine.

How can you know that?

[austinTparty]

No, this is when you go to a relative and say: "I'm scared I'm going to hurt my baby" and seek treatment. I know very well some people treated for severe post-partum depression--it's no joke. But it is also no excuse for murder.

[KineticKitty]

"you might consider that recongnition and treatment of post-partum depression can prevent the suffering of children."

I agree with that statement 100%. But you must also consider the fact that people react to this information as possibly just another future excuse to help this parent skate out of the consequences of a guilty verdict. Which I tend to wonder myself when reading cases like this.

Yes, depression is sad, but some people are just getting sick of people claiming insanity, depression, or whatever after they commit such heinous crimes. I don't know about this case in particular, but I wonder with most of these kinds of cases, if it was so apparent, why didn't the criminal seek help before the crime was committed? Or better yet, why anyone that it was so obvious to (before the murder) like friends and family, 1/3 of the time never say anything until after said crime is committed?

If this mother did seek help and did not recieve it, or family or friends tried to alert proper agencies to a problem brewing, that is very sad, but still doesn't deflect the fact that she murdered her child. Even if she has depression, I have no sympathy for her unless it can be shown she was outright loony, which I doubt. But before this is over, I'm sure we'll all know.

If depression is a good enough excuse to murder someone, then I would suspect that at least 1/3 the population of the United States could be murdered tomorrow.

[Z in Oregon]

Actually, it was yet another cold-blooded killer snuffing out an innocent baby...something you're obviously just fine with.

Bet you're "pro-choice".

[TheCrusader]

"This wasn't baby blues, it was a pathologic chemical imbalance that could have been corrected with medicine."

I think it was a cold blooded, murderous act perpetrated by a low life, cold hearted witch who decided she didn't like the pressure of raising a child anymore. And I think the cowardly feminists who blame their mental state every time one of them slaughters an innocent child should do extra time for being such outrageously bold, callous, indifferent pigs.

[katz]

Well, let her live with the knowledge that she killed her baby.....let her live the rest of her life in prison. She made the choice to give life and to take life. If taking her infants life was a call for help then she got it....she can get all the help she needs behind bars. She will no longer have the right to life. I do not feel sympathy for her. For G-d's sake there are numerous public broadcast statements for every 'issue' out there. She could have gotten help. After all, our government has a program for everyone.

[honeygrl]

"This wasn't baby blues, it was a pathologic chemical imbalance that could have been corrected with medicine."

And it can now be corrected with the harshest penalty the court can possibly find to give her. MANY women get post pardum depression and even post pardum psychosis (my mom had that after my brother was born) and they don't go killing their kids because of it. There is no good excuse to slit your baby's throat. There's no excuse at all.

[bd476]

SarahW, your insight is remarkable, considering the amount of negative press spewed out every single day regarding the "evils of psychotropic medication and psychiatry."

How ironic to note that many, if not all of the anti-psychotropic medication and anti-psychiatry press releases come directly from the Church of Scientology.

Of course, every "religion" is entitled to their own beliefs tax deductions and cult-like recruiting techniques, which intentionally mislead potential members victims, deriding psychiatry while promising "fixed" lives through "scientifically proven auditing" techniques.

And hey it worked for Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Kelli Preston, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and thousands more.

The link below connects to the Church of Scientology's Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR).

Caveat emptor.

http://www.cchr.org/

[First Amendment]

The problem with "chemical imbalance" is that it is based on the premise that consciousness is merely a chemical by-product. Kind of like radio waves or something; if there's static, it's just a technical problem. Wrong balance of chemicals. Like making a recipe with too much baking powder. But no scientist has ever been able to find the "seat" of consciousness. There have even been functioning people who had no actual brain. Undoubtedly people have different chemical balances (or imbalances) and these may be related to moods or other mental states. But perhaps the mood creates the chemicals, and not the other way around? For instance, when you feel fear, the whole body goes through all kinds of chemical changes. But the chemicals are created by the fear, not the other way around.

Another point is that the brain is really like a type of computer - and does a regular computer run itself? The actual person (soul, atma, self, whatever you word you want to use) is the operator of the brain. A person does not have to be the slave of their moods. A person still has free will and choice.

An example - I used to suffer from severe depression, I tried suicide (seriously) when I was 13, and was even hospitalized when I was 15. I suffered from it for years. Now I suffer no more from it (occasionally get in a bad mood like anyone else for a morning or something). I did not get cured by the use of chemicals. I decided to change, and the story of my cure I will leave for another thread.
The person is more than chemicals.

[ShandaLear]

How do you know what it was? Were you her physician?

[Centurion2000]

This wasn't baby blues, it was a pathologic chemical imbalance that could have been corrected with medicine.

It was also murder ... string her up.

[riri]

This wasn't baby blues, it was a pathologic chemical imbalance that could have been corrected with medicine

You can't be serious.

[Clara Lou]

Assuming that you are correct and this is post-partum depression, does the "pathologic chemical imbalance" that we assume she had also keep her from recognizing that something was wrong with her? Did it keep her from seeking help? I know several women who became depressed (to varying degrees and due to various causes) and then sought help. This woman has no excuse. She chose to kill.

[Calpernia]

Not all depressed people, treated or not, have a tendency to kill.

If there is a tendency present, medication doesn't fix that.