That'll help
On Saturday a 20 year old international student was admitted to hospital with internal bleeding after giving birth. She did not have a baby with her. The hospital alerted the police, and the police found a dead baby.
This afternoon she was charged with manslaughter, by failing to provide the necessaties of life.
OK I can't even respond to that fact with any kind of coherence. Charging that woman with manslaughter is just about the stupidest and least helpful thing anyone could do in that situation.
For more background read these posts on Interesting Times
Are you aware of the details of her actions which have led to the charges?
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing that bothers me about these crimes. If a women commits them, then she is obviously has a 'disturbed state of mind.' However if a father did it he's automatically be a cold blooded murderer who needs to rot in jail.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that if we are struggling for equality it's the same treatment for both genders whether we throw them in jail or make them head for counselling.
I don't know a great deal about the details of this case, but I think it would be perilous to treat men and women exactly the same when something like this happens. For example, we have to take into account that a woman who has just given birth may be suffering from post-natal psychosis, which is a very serious mental condition. A woman suffering from this is not capable of committing "cold-blooded" murder - cold blood implies sanity.
ReplyDeleteActually Sophia it's more our reactions to it. There's still this disbeilief that women can be capable of harming children, ergo she must have a disorder. Whereas with men, he's automatically a cold blooded killer even though he may have pyshcatric problems himself.
ReplyDeleteJust interesting how ingrained gender roles are in everyone.
Stef I agree with Xavier and Sofiya - the point is that no man is ever in the situation of just having given birth.
ReplyDeleteForget locking her up, just charging her is only going to make things worse.
Dean I already asked you not to comment on my blog. I missed deleting one of your posts. That doesn't make you any less unwelcome
ReplyDeleteWhen the opinions that differ from one's own include misogynist bullshit, one is fucking well entitled to delete them on ONE'S OWN BLOG. Jesus H.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of women that have mental conditions and are able to give birth without putting their babies in garbage bags.
ReplyDeleteShe had other options. She could have an abortion, she could have an adoption. She stuck her baby in a garbage bag. That is a crime and she should go before court to decide her fate, just as a man would in the same situation.
Equal rights for women, mean we must face equal punishment when we break the law.