Mother Accused of Slitting Baby's Throat (feminist professor - expostfacto abortion)

Fox News ^

[RockChucker]

She's a feminist. I am sure her beliefs about babies made the dirty deed a little easier.

[onehipdad]

Pretty cut and dried, don't you think? (no pun intended).

Possible basis of PPD: Not all about her anymore..

[AppyPappy]

The telling of right from wrong depends on ones understanding of one's world and one's circumstances.

No no no. She KILLED a baby. There is never a time when that is acceptable to anyone. Anyone who would kill a baby should be locked away because they are a threat to humanity. She knew it was wrong and she did it anyway. There is no way a person does not know that killing a baby is wrong.

[colorado tanker]

Politics has nothing to do with this

I agree. I've seen the same kind of postpartum depression killing by fundamentalist Christians. The perp's politics didn't cause this. What a horrible case.

[Kaslin]

Listen to Hannity today! I bet he takes the mother's side in this.

I can just hear him now as he says " You have to hear the mother's side of it"

I doubt you have ever listened to Sean Hannity, or you are mistaking him with alan Colmes

[twigs]

She knew it was wrong and she did it anyway

I agree. I have lived with psychotic women divorced from reality. They STILL know the difference from right and wrong. This woman IS a threat to society and needs to be incarcerated. But I agree with cajun that she needs to be treated medically too. While she's incarcerated.

[AppyPappy]

I'm sure someone will swear to her innocence because she hasn't been to trial yet. That's what we do with athletes.

[Saundra Duffy]

and she just wanted to give the baby some relief.

So she slits the baby's throat. Makes sense.

[LexBaird]

Judgemental is not as much a problem as ignorance. One can be ignorant and judgemental or informed and judgemental. Being judgemental itself is no badge of honor.

Being jugdemental is a badge of having convictions. One may be correct or in error in their convictions; as long as I am willing to modify mine based on good reason, I'll remain confidently judgemental.

The alternative is to stand for nothing. To never decide for fear of making an error in judgement. To be so open-minded your brain falls out.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I have a friend who has depression and just had a baby on Thursday. She knows that if she starts to ' lose it ' that I am on call and will go over and take the baby from her until her episode passes. She is married and has wanted a baby for 10 years. 2 years ago she had twins die in her womb at 7 months old and was forced to deliver dead babies.

I am familiar with depression and post partum depression. I would not mock it, it's sad the woman didn't have a close structure to help her. Maybe the reason that she was at her mother's home was to have the mother help out with her mental difficulties because she thought she might harm the baby.

BTW, my friend is not a liberal, so if she did harm her baby, would it be blamed on feminism?

[LexBaird]

When the human brian malfunctions, the capacity for human judgement is lost. Behavior becomes random and irrational.

Of course we see people trying to get away with this as a defense when, in fact, they hadn't lost their judgement. But just because some seek to falsely use an insanity defense doesn't mean there really aren't people to whom it applies.

The people to whom this applies are vanishingly rare. It more honored as a defense for the undefendable by the loophole lawyers, than as a real phenomenon.

Far more common are people who are insane, but retain judgement of right and wrong, such as sociopaths.

You want a simple solution to a complex problem.

What I want is for people to hold adults responsible for their actions. I don't care if you're depressed. I don't care if you had a rough childhood. I don't care if you have a crack addiction. I don't care if you come from some country where you can abuse your wife freely. I don't care what your "excuse" is for your anti-social actions.

Some complex problems do have simple solutions. Alexander solved the Gordian Knot with his sword.

[MEG33]

Please read my # 47. I fired off at first because it's so horrendous.I never mentioned any of the things you state All I said was I wish we had her in Texas and corrected it later on reflection.Not because I know the facts...I don't.I'll leave it to the courts.

[jimt]

You excerpted the article as to not include that the woman had post partum depression and was on medication. She was married and had the child, therefore she did not have an abortion.

So what if she is a professor. The woman had a terrible condition, a condition that several conservative women have as well.

It is horrible that this baby is dead. What makes you think that it is a time to mock her?

Perhaps we have slightly different ideas about what it means for a mother to cut the throat of her six month old baby.

I could care less what her "condition" was !! She MURDERED her BABY !!

Why do people seem to go out of their way to make excuses for women who murder their children? The fact that it's extremely unnatural doesn't excuse her, it makes it more horrific.

She'll probably get off with three weeks probation and five hours community service - from a female judge.

I'd give her the chair, and throw the switch myself. I don't like people who murder children.

[beckett]

Post partum Psychosis can lead to infanticide...

Where is all this stuff about "psychosis" coming from? I thought you were imploring everyone to wait until more facts came to light before making judegements unfavorable to the professor, and yet here you assign a mental state to her that absolves her from guilt without having any basis for that assignation, other than, of course, that she killed her child. Are you saying any mother that kills her child is "psychotic" and ispo facto innocent?

Post-partum depression does not ipso facto equal "psychosis." Let's not stretch the definition of PPD even further so that it affords truly blanket coverage for any and all acts a woman may perform under its influence.

This woman is a PhD for crying out loud. PhDs may be many things, some of them loathesome to be sure, but once they get hired onto a tenure track, as this woman was at Villanova, it is at least forgiveable to assume that they are not psychotic.

If she is a doctrinaire feminist (her CV certainly makes her out to be one), and if her child was handicapped, and if she is familiar with the work of Peter Singer, as most acdemics are, and with his utilitarian stand that there ought not be practical ethical qualms about disposing of a kid destined for a miserable life, she may indeed have been perfectly cognizant of the moral strictures surrounding her actions and decided to go forward anyway. Depression does not necessarily impair one's ability to make fine distinctions and sophistcated, nuanced arguments. Some of the best novels ever written were written by chronic depressives.

Psychosis is a whole 'nother animal altogether.

[cajungirl]

you absolute clod,,did you read my post which was a reply to someone who asked general info about post partum psychosis. Not only are you abysmally ignorant on the subject but you are rude as well. These threads bring out the sentence now and think later crew who usually know nothing other than their perception about things which is not open to any other thinking. I was replying to someone who indicated she was willing to do some thinking about things rather than spouting off. It may surprise some but the entire civilized world including our legal system has provisions for criminal insanity codified by far wiser people than the people on this thread. There is an entire series of judgements about these conditions as well as standards to determine whether someone is criminally insane or not. I do think the law goes back to the early 18th century in Britain but look it up. Unless you just like to spout your opinion unenlightened by any other knowledge. But you were rude in your response as you did not read my post which said nothing which you inferred from it.

[beckett]

you absolute clod...

Your statement, i.e., "post-partum psychosis can lead to infanticide," in the context of this thread, can only be interpreted as prospective defense of the subject of this thread, i.e., the Villanova professor.

It's easy to call someone a "clod" in debate. It's a bit more difficult to present a logical, coherent argument, a skill you clearly have not mastered.

[cajungirl]

"only be interpreted",,that is the problem. The only interpretation is yours, right or wrong. If you read the reply and the person addressing me, there are many interpretations of what I said. You are still a clod in my humble opinion. And a rather uninformed one if you think being a professor relieves anyone of the risk of psychosis. Happens all the time in universities. And post partum depression or psychosis is no respector of social class, education or age. The only requirement is onset in the post partum period and some define that as in the first weeks after delivery, others longer. You use your lack of information in a way that makes your personally held point which trumps anything else you hear. So be it.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

What is reason 4926?

[cajungirl]

No one said it was acceptable. And I don't know how you got into this lady's mind when the news just hit the papers. How would you know what she knew and what she didn't? The courts usually rely on expert examiners to determine that including forensic examiners hired by the courts. Of course, I guess given that so many esteemed people on this thread already know the crime, the penalty and the punishment, we should just throw her in jail. Never mind that she is a citizen of a country that guarantees her some rights in this case. Some Freepers think little of that. I don't know if this woman needs to be in jail or a hospital, I don't know what will happen with adjudication. But I know alot about post partum psychosis and the law so I will wait and let it takes its course rather than spouting off.

[AppyPappy]

She killed a baby. She needs to be locked up. It's not like we are still looking for the killer. She's a threat to society.

[Xenalyte]

Wonder where Daddy was?