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Originally Posted by somerfrost
Some folks just want their pound of flesh disguised as justice! This was a trial that never should have happened...after the retrial was ordered (on the grounds that one of the prosecution witnesses lied on the stand by the way), the defense offered a plea bargain where she would be committed to a mental health facility for life...exactly what the jury decided! The prosecutor, with plenty of public support and a lot of crap about "remember the poor children" went ahead with the costly sham...hopefully he will be held accountable and asked why??? The woman is responsible for what she did...and she will be held in a place where she can get appropriate treatment. As she becomes more aware of reality, the pain of her acts will hardly seem like she's "getting off easy"...as she recovers (if she does), she will live with the unimaginable pain of killing her kids. This was a woman with a history of severe depression...the fact that there were inadequate MH services to provide her with the help she needed (and ultimately to provide for the safety of her family) is a failure of society to understand the reality of mental illness and the failure of a health care system that is becoming more and more inaccessible to those without significant means...if we are gonna limit medical care to the rich, we cannot call ourselves a compassionate and advanced society!
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I agree with all your points, Somer, but I also put some blame on her home situation-- was there anyone available to her besides her husband to try to get her the help she needed? How is anyone to know someone needs help if neither that person nor any of the people around him/her actively seek it? I just think of that woman at home alone with five small children, homeschooling them and caring for a sick relative on top of it.
And yet I don't even know how much blame can be put on the husband since I think he's very much a product of his culture and religion-- believing women are supposed to be home doing nothing but having and raising kids and tending to the family-- that's what God wants. And the fact that his wife was obviously overworked and miserable probably never entered into his mind because hey, she was doing what she was supposed to do, so therefore she must be fine, right? Or maybe he was aware, but didn't know how to deal with it. Depression is debilitating to the people around the sufferer, too. I just don't know.
Which is not to let our health care system off the hook at all, as it totally sucks. I'm in agreement with you on that.
Though I'm sure Tom Cruise would say with proper exercise and vitamins she would have been fine since Scientologists don't believe post-partum depression exists. Oh, shh... I might get sued now.
