Woman charged with murder in fetus drug death.

[truthbetold]

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) -- A 27-year-old Oklahoma woman has been charged with first-degree murder after doctors said the woman's illegal drug use caused her baby to be stillborn, prosecutors said Thursday.


<http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/09/10/crime.mother.ap/index.html>

This could mean bad news for pro-choicers.

[Catfight]

1. Was Rush the father? n/t

[WMliberal]

2. so if it's bad drinking water, is the whole city government going to be

charged?

[enki23]

3. that's complete bullshit

perhaps she should be charged, but not with murder. that's absurd.

[Gelliebeans]

4. this opens a debate about

those of us who have to take medicines that are prescibed by our doctors for our health and whether this administration has the right to decide whether we are justified in taking meds while pregnant.

[Swamp Rat]

5. This is bad for humanity - Dark Ages II

[Xithras]

6. I think the litmus test here is pretty simple

Remember, this is all about choice. If a woman chooses to abort a fetus, that's her right and she has no other obligation to it. However, if a woman chooses to have the baby, she DOES have a responsibility to care for it and to avoid behaviors that will bring it harm.

The difference here is quite simple. When you abuse drugs while pregnant, you are not just hurting a fetus, you're also causing serious injury to the child that the fetus will become. If a child is born with FAS because its mother refused to lay off the booze, the mothers behavior can easily be singled out as the cause of the childs birth defects, and the mother should be held legally responsible.

In this case, a child (at 32 weeks it was viable) was killed because its mother needed a fix. She should be held responsible for that. If she couldn't stay clean, she shouldn't have kept the fetus.

[Mandate My Ass]

8. If she couldn't stay clean

she should have been in rehab, getting the kind of humane treatment that her disease required.

This is criminalizing the disease of addiction just as mental illness was criminalized under Reagan. Gut social programs designed to help the sick and toss impaired people in jail so the prison industrial complex can get rich. There is no benefit to society to charge this woman with murder, let alone first-degree murder.

[samtob]

13. She still made that choice

She made the choice to start taking drugs, and she made the choice to stay pregnant, and take drugs while she was pregnant.

[Mandate My Ass]

19. Yeah, no shit

that's not murder though, it's sickness.

[politicat]

26. rehab requires resources.

money, or access to social services and the will to bully them into getting you a bed ASAP and there being a bed available... Many drug addicts don't have the money, don't have the access to social services because they don't have the transportation or the knowledge that DPS WILL help you and not just put you in jail; even if she does know and can get there and feels safe doing it, getting the will and ability to make your own problems big enough to be seen is HARD. Remember, most drug addicts don't see themselves as important enough to be treated well and can't even stand up for themselves, so why would anyone else do so? Of course, this all assumes that there's a bed available in a treatment facility. There usually is not a bed available.

Charity beds in AZ and Colorado for pregnant women (who had priority when I was working mental health) could be a 3 month wait. And these were in areas that were relatively affluent.

Catch-22. Yes, I know the easy answer us build more rehabs.... on what budget???

Pcat

[zanana]

7. Here we go.....

It was only a matter of time. Conservatives not only want to abolish a woman's right to choose; they want to control her personal life for nine months at a time. Next, birth control.

[AndyTiedye]

10. They Will Want to Control Womens Lives All The Time...

...because they might become pregnant.

[leesa]

9. OK. So if a woman's fetus dies and it is discovered she ate a bad diet,

will she be guilty of murder. If she excercised too much will she be accused of murder? Can't these freaks satisfy themselves with murdering Muslims around the world??

[robbedvoter]

11. A woman having pregnancy diabetes eating sweets would also be

a candidate to the chair (pregnancy diabetes is a fairly common occurence - that's why doctors routinely check for it at a certain stage in pregnacy). eat a chocolate and fry - the BFEE slogan. They sure encourage more women to get an abortion rather than submit to their animal control regimen.

[AndyTiedye]

12. Yet When a Preacher Kills a Child While Performing an "Exorcism"...

...he is only charged with child abuse.

[dmr]

14. They charged a woman in Florida like this several years ago

if I remember correctly, the charges didn't stick.

[Peregrine]

15. She took a plea agreement

so the prosecution was never challenged.

[Seabiscuit]

16. The case will be tossed out

"Murder" is a killing of a *human being* with malice.

Roe vs. Wade made it clear that a fetus is *not* a "human being" entitled to the protections of the laws. Roe v. Wade will trump this frivolous case.

[Jacobin]

17. I have a good friend with a 27 year old daughter who is 7 months

pregnant and a raging alcoholic and drug abuser....raging. She bounces from boyfriend to woman's shelter (until they want to help her and then she flees) to boyfriend to boyfriend to bar.

My friend has tried for years to get her help but she refuses. It is amazing that she has lived this long. She "wants" the baby and refused to get an abortion, but does not connect in any realistic way the damage she is doing to herself and her baby. A classic addict.

It's very very sad for all concerned. By seven months, I'm sure the fetus is fried, but it may live and be a burden to society, because she won't stay straight for 24 hours and won't take care of it.

Putting her in jail a good solution? I doubt it. Very difficult thing to deal with. If she could be convinced in a lucid interval to have her tubes tied it would help with future problems, since she does not seem interested in getting dry.

[xchrom]

18. more superstition in the news

so if the woman jay walked and got hit by a car and the fetus died -- do they charge her with murder?
when does the oversight stop?
will all pregnant women get handlers until they deliver -- who will do this job?

[doreme]

20. barbara bush

better watch her back as she was obviously smoking crack while she was spawning.

[short bus president]

21. What kind of prenatal care was given?

Seems to me that a raging meth habit (raging enough to leave the stillborn non-child with "two times enough meth in it to kill a grown adult") should maybe have been diagnosed earlier in the pregnancy. What kind of OB/GYN fails to notice such a problem in a mother-to-be? Or notices, and does nothing about it, except calling the cops after delivery? Lots of failures in this scenario, and the would-be mother's failure to curb her addiction on her own is only one of them.

[Mandate My Ass]

22. the spawn of the poor

are of no concern to anybody except in cases where the mother wants to exercise her right to control her reproductive choice, or where future cannon fodder is damaged or killed before it can be of use to the elite.

[Jacobin]

23. Some women get no pre-natal care....on purpose

for this very reason. They know they would be busted.

[jukes]

24. another back-door attempt

to classify an embryo as a human being, opening the door to more controls over woman.

this makes me ill.

[DoNotRefill]

25. Fuckers....

:grr:

[LynnTheDem]

27. Coming soon...

Woman charged with murder for shoveling snow, causing miscarriage.

Woman charged with murder for lifting heavy box, causing miscarriage.

Woman charged with murder for drinking alcohol, causing miscarriage.

Woman charged with murder for smoking, causing miscarriage.

Woman charged with murder for wearing high heels and falling, causing miscarriage.

[Arianrhod]

28. "Woman charged with murder for wearing high heels "

I personally witnessed a case where a woman working on a government contract tripped on some flooring in a room where another contract company was remodeling. She hurt herself to the extent that she had to go to the hospital, and couldn't walk for a couple of weeks. The government determined that she shouldn't have been wearing high heels to the office, and refused to compensate her.