Women who kill their newborns are deeply unwell, so why are they being tried for murder?
Julie Wheelwright
If the verdict ends up being while the balance of mind was disturbed etc then that’s fine. Because the prosecution for murder is the process by which we find out whether the killing of someone produces guilt of a crime or not.
’Her murder conviction adds to an increasingly clear picture that women and girls who conceal a pregnancy and subsequently cause the death of their infant through violence or neglect are being treated with an ever more punitive approach.’
Good. In a case such as this one, what else would suffice to show society’s disapproval of murder?
Also: ’…women who are accused of killing a newborn are incredibly vulnerable and experience pregnancy as a moment of crisis.’
Pretty long ‘moment’, isn’t it?
Those elderly Catholic ladies were right again, weren’t they?
Try this as an alternative perspective:
Men who kill their newborns are deeply unwell, so why are they being tried for murder?
For those of an unbalanced state of mind, understandable. Having had direct experience of post-partum psychosis, that shit is scary.
Where I disagree is mothers who do things like beat their kid to death, stuff their mouths full of cotton wool so they suffocate (both of whom murdered their newborns because they didn’t want the busy social lives to be impacted).
Or the two recent cases where women went on vacation for a week to 10 days and left their baby to “fend for itself” seeming surprised when they returned and found the baby dead (one case UK the other US)
So no, we won’t be giving blanket not guilty verdicts because some women deserve severe punishment for their crimes, both here and in the hereafter.
I do agree with you DJ. Perhaps we should just go back to dumping the kids on the rubbish heap?
And a trifle off topic. When do you think the Guardian will learn how to spell ‘soldier’?
It wasn’t quite though, was it? Left on a mountainside for the Gods to decide. If collected by Eagle or raised by wolves then clearly the Gods have plans.
If died of exposure, then not so much.
So, it was the will of the Gods, not man that were being allowed to flourish.
Letsee…
Mayo told police the baby “all of a sudden popped out” while she leaned against a windowsill downstairs.
I knew women were putting it on for the attention. All that screaming and shouting, just for show.
Isolated and terrified, they deny their condition, and deliver a baby without assistance or pain relief, viewing their infant as a “problem” that can only be solved by being “unborn”.
Why would they need pain relief if it “just pops out”?
Alternatively, she’s full of shit.
on average, your lifetime risk of being murdered is highest between birth and the age of 18 months, by your mother.
– So, it was the will of the Gods, not man that were being allowed to flourish.
That’s more pathetic than “all of a sudden popped out”.
@PJF – I quite agree, but that’s the Greco-Romans for you. Unsentimental bunch.
Mature (39 years) woman kills baby at 38 weeks. Gets a two year sentence.
Immature (15 years) girl kills baby at 40 weeks. Gets 12 years.
Hmm. Methinks the 39 year old lady would be well advised to abandon her appeal against sentence.
Or the two recent cases where women went on vacation for a week to 10 days and left their baby to “fend for itself”
I missed both of these stories and therefore may not be aware of any extenuating circumstances although for the life of me I can’t think of what they might be.
My reaction is that a justifiable punishment would involve these two party animals being made to fend for themselves in solitary confinement without food or water for a similar period of time plus an extra 14 days. However I am not an inhumane man and accordingly flashing lights and techno music may be provided throughout.
@John – Both provided for your horror.
Infanticide UK:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12219533/Social-workers-not-foreseen-death-20-month-old-baby.html
Infanticide USA:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12229951/Mother-31-charged-murder-left-16-month-old-daughter-home-TEN-days.html
Thank you John. It takes a lot to shock me these days but by God those two stories manage it.
One sometimes reads that in men’s prisons certain offenders are given a particularly tough time by their fellow inmates. I only hope that the same applies to women and that every single day of their confinement is the living hell that these two so richly deserve.
I remember case #1 – nine years? She got really lucky.
Case #2 – good God above. It’s not gone to trial yet, but if that b*tch gets anything less than thirty, there’s no justice.
They really are arguing for port-partum abortion, aren’t they? Just as with that recent case of a 35-week abortion, this case of a “43-week abortion”, they are demanding complete legal absolvance from killing offspring at any age. Pin them to a wall and demand exactly *WHAT* upper limit would you accept? 50 weeks? 100 weeks? 500 weeks?
It’s murder, but there will likely be some sort of psychiatric assessment that may save her from prison on reason of insanity. It’s still murder though.
Nutters that commit murder should still be locked up for the safety of the rest of us, just in a secure hospital rather than a prison.
Pin them to a wall and demand exactly *WHAT* upper limit would you accept? 50 weeks? 100 weeks? 500 weeks?
In the case of anyone named Keir, I’d suggest 5,000 weeks.
We used to lock the nutters up BiW, but with the development of drug treatments for them, it was decided that they could ‘live in the community’. Much cheaper than dumping them in the loony bin for the rest of their lives.
The weakness of this approach is that the general populace then have to put up with the nutty nutters. I’m thinking of the white bloke in New York who held down a black nutter who was pestering the people on the subway. The choke hold killed him, so the white bloke is up for murder. I haven’t heard of the black blokes who helped him being charged with anything at all.
The trouble is, government deals with a problem that has pestered the people for ages. Then costs and changes in fashion mean the solution is dumped. But the good old fashioned lynch mob that used to deal with such things is considered to be just too horrid. So you slimy plebs should simply put up with it. It’s just too wicked for you to defend yourselves.