January 30, 2008
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Drug Use and Pregnancy
Theresa Hernandez used methamphetamine while pregnant. (This issue was sent to me by Mightymarce).
Her baby was born stillborn. She is being charged with first-degree murder and she faces “the possibility of life imprisonment.” Here is the link: Link
Do you think Theresa should face charges for taking drugs while pregnant?
Comments (153)
That’s a tough question. I think using drugs is bad. I think using drugs while pregnant is worse. But is it murder…I don’t know!!!! Did she know that taking the drugs would kill her baby? Was she sad about losing it?
No. Definitely not.
for the drug use, yes, since it is an offense (although i’m learning in my criminal law class that it doesn’t really meet the traditional elements of a crime) but for murder?
she didn’t have intent! she has the disease of addiction; she wasn’t trying to kill her child. and he was only a life in the legal sense for a short time anyway.
for murder? no.
negligent manslaughter at best, and she should get treatment not jail.
So… that was murder but aborting the same baby wouldn’t? I think it is murder just as much as killing a newborn with meth would have been.
Wow… it all depends on when you belive life begins in an embryo don’t you…
drugs are not good for anyone and there fore doing the drugs she harmed ones life. yes
@RaVnR - I was thinking the same. Immediately the term “negligent homicide” came to mind (not sure if that’s an official legal term). It’s definitely not murder though, as there was no intent to kill. There wasn’t even an attempt to cause harm (unlikely, but unsure. I’d have to be proven).
If taking lots of caffeine to miscarry isn’t murder, this shouldn’t be either.
It’d have to be*
Yes…people need to take responsibility for their action. Instead, they get PC about it and take every loophole around the law trying to say that it is OK to kill the embryo.
She should be punished for using the drug, yes. However, I don’t think that first degree murder charges are the way to go. Is she remorseful? Addiction is powerful… she needs some kind of help. However, if she’s not remorseful and doesn’t care about what happened… lock her up and make her suffer the withdrawals with no help.
HA there are women here who do coke while pregnant and their babies are merely taken away from them.
Sounds like a double standard to me, why don’t they start going after moms who drink or smoke while knowingly pregnant? Like meth mommy, they probably aren’t trying to harm their babies but it does anyway.
No, she should not face charges unless mothers suffer penalties around the board for abusing any substance during pregnancy.
Another interesting story which has aspects important to both pro-choice and pro-life people.
Yes.
Without a doubt this will transend to the abortion issue, but yes, obviously it had the factor of killing the unborn. If a criminal was to beat a pregnant woman and the baby died, he’s charged with the murder. How is it different if she did it herself?
I doubt she intended for her baby to die. I think she is a druggie with some real tough problems… but I seriously doubt she wanted this to happen. How very sad.
Yes…
Absolutely. Any idiot knows that drugs can kill a person. Whether it’s you or your baby, it’s still a death.
She should have thought about that possibility before the shot up.
*she shot up.
@sarahellie - more like knocked up.
What’s the difference between that and abortion?
People get charged with double murder when they kill a woman who is pregnant, but a woman doesn’t get charged for murder when she has an abortion. That doesn’t make sense to me. So, I have no idea how our justice system will rule on this case. It’s all very strange to me.
I’m not sure about murder, maybe manslaughter. Something bad, though.
@steph843 - Sad that my girlfriend’s sister is pregnant with her 3rd child (She is 29 and married, before you start scoffing). And she is more or less a chain smoker. A visit to her house found 2 very lovely children, and their mom was very nice. But I cringed everytime she stepped outside to have a cigarette. I mentioned something to Chrissy (my girlfriend) about it, she told me to “tell it to the tree”.
It’s sad because she is killing her baby that she loves, and either doesn’t know, or doesn’t care.
If that isn’t illegal, than this woman shouldn’t be charged either.
Certainly some charges should be filed…I do not believe she intended to kill her child though.
What a life that child would have had ,I have seen way to many children grow up with parents who are drug addicts ,I have had foster kids while parents were in Rehab.It is a terrible life to live.
There is a part of me that says yes, but most of me says no. Are we going to go back and convict all women who used drugs for the harm they did to their babies while in utero. She is not the first woman that killed her fetus with drug use. She should not go to jail. Living with herself will be enough punishment. Jail won’t make a difference to her or fix what she did.
Yes. But unfortunately that means that I think she killed a human being when she killed her unborn baby. A lot of people don’t think the baby is a person, so it wouldn’t be infanticide.
if she knew she had an addiction she should have used a coat hanger along time before the baby was born–preferably a rusted wire one.
I say living with the guilt is not enough. People need to take responsibility for their actions. Forget about rehab. If this doesnt stop her use, then what will?? She obviously had no regard for ANY human life.
If you can charge the woman for murder because of this, then you should be able to charge any woman who has an abortion with murder.
My answer is NO.
oh my gosh. yes, she should pay for her actions, but i think the issue is if she would have aborted it, she would not face these kinds of convictions. abortion is the same as premeditated murder.
But abortion is perfectly fine and legal? Hmm, confusing…
@SamsMom1004 - I heard you. Everything is so PC about this topic.
The way I see it she gave her self an abortion and as long as abortion is still legal they cannot charge her with anything.
No.
The child being stillborn is a direct result of her drug use. As soon as she found she was pregnant, she had her choice, tough as it was, she made it. It was the wrong one. Yes she should be serving time. A life in prison might even get her off the meth, what do you think?
first degree murder? No…
How have I not come across your site before? Your posts are great. Very thought provoking and non-lame, which is the exception rather than the rule for question-oriented posts.
As for Theresa… did the doctors say the baby was born dead because of her meth use? Because lots of healthy women have stillborn babies. If so, sure. Charge her. But also charge the women who use and have children who live but suffer lifelong problems due to their mother’s drug abuse.
You also have to consider women who miscarry or have stillbirths for other preventable reasons. What about the expectant mother who knowingly lifts too much weight and then miscarries? Do we charge her with murder? After all, it was a conscious decision.
I don’t know. It’s a slippery slope issue, I’m afraid.
@hllrider - I think it’s great. And a life in prison for you would get you off flippant comment.
@SunnyMitsu - How would you NOT know that taking meth would harm a baby? Sheesh.
According to many people, it is not a baby, but just a fetus. This is where people become hypocritical.
Not first degree murder. But defnately child abuse, or negligent homicide.
No way!
no. as horrible as it is, the truth is that it is her body and she can do what she wants to it. as far as the law is concerned it shouldn’t be considered murder unless it was able to survive on it’s own without living in a mother/host. would you charge someone who had tapeworms or another parasite with murder if they did meth?
(people like her help make the argument as to why abortions should remain legal though.)
this in no way means that i condone drug use of any form during pregnancy. people should take prenatals and be able to put down the bottle and the pipe if they are with child.
The baby was still-born, there’s no evidence it’s because of the drug use. It’s too easy to condemn someone out of hand if they’re a poor minority with a drug addiction and you’re none of those.
I’m none of those either – but a couple of years ago I had to go to the Emergency Room because my granddaughter lunged at me and put her finger deep into my eye. When the Dr administered an anesthetic eyedrop that took away the pain immediately I got a small glimpse of an addicts choices. At that moment I would have done anything for those eyedrops.
She needs treatment, not punishment.
No, No and No!!!!!!!!
@LSP1 - Why is that hypocritical? Until a baby can live on its own without its mother (host) its a parasite.
Yes!!!!
or don’t get pregnant…it’s just irresponsible.
She should get arrested for doing drugs! Since there is evidence!
i guess if you can prove it was intentional, then yes, 1st degree…which would be hard to prove, i think.
i think it falls under reckless endangerment of a child, and the usual stuff with that. not death penalty or life imprisonment… definitely counseloring for drug use and definitely jail time… probably the same thing you’d charge a person for killing a person with a car type of deal…
5-10 years in jail. but hey, i’m no lawyer.
but definitely not life, definitely not death, and definitely not free. no less than 5 years for making am mistake that huge, is fitting.
no way. depending on how blown she was there is a possibility it was a ways into the pregnancy before she even knew she was pregnant. there was no intent to murder so negligent homicide, as ravnr or azure said (forget which), would be more appropriate. drug use could be prosecuted but they would have to be careful how they did it.
@hllrider - please! prison is the BEST place to get drugs! likely ones never before available!
Murder? Basically it was an accidental abortion, right? Drug charges at the most.
Interesting. You can be charged with murder for a stillborn baby, but abortion is still legal. I would charge her for manslaughter. She took drugs because of her addiction, not because she wanted to kill her baby.
Don’t you know? It’s only a baby if its wanted. Otherwise its just a mothers tissue. You know a growth. Like a tumor. That has hands. and feet, and toes, and fingers, and hair, and blood vessels, and eyes, and a head, with a brain, and brainwaves….
And it feels, like when you take scissors and shove them in their neck then suck the brains out of them.
You know.. like that. But they really don’t feel any of that if they’re wanted.
@Happy_Feet_99 - As I said above, “Until a baby can live on its own without its mother (host) its a parasite.”
Yes.
@Single4Eternally -
This has absolutely nothing to do with political correctness.
To answer the question: Yes, but not for “killing” the “baby.”
If there is no medical science to back up the charges, no.
On second reading of the question, I thnk she should face charges for taking the meth. But I don’t think she should face murder charges. Child endangerment, maybe? I suppose the child isn’t legally a child.
@IssyMae - the idea is that “i have the right to kill my child but you dont” i suppose the real test of those lawsuits would be what charges would come if some lunatic killed a woman on her way to get an abortion.
@raizhafae - so unborn babies are parasites now? wow, that’s….. you know i cant think of an accurate word that would be anything other than hatefully derrogatory. though i suppose it would come in handy if we decided to kill off infants and toddlers, i mean, would you charge me with murder for putting my dog to sleep, or accidentaly running over a cat? i mean, i dont have to bottle feed dogs or cats so they must be higher up than infants.
as to the topic at hand, i look forward to reading the article to see the logic behind this, but as the question is put here, the most she could be charged with is negligent homicide and drug use, just as rvnr said. since abortion is legal, and even if she did intend for the baby to die, it would amount to nothing more than an abortion she can not be charged with murder. in fact, in this case having intent to kill the child could actually help her. if she intended to kill the child it was not negligent, therefor negligent homicide would be out. of course if you chalk it up to an abortion you could charge her with practicing medicine without a licence, since abortion is concidered a “medical procedure.”
i would say charge her with drugs, leave the baby out of it, since as the law stands you have nothing to charge her with. want something? change the law.
No.
One of my cousins is a drug addict. She has had 5 children all addicted to drugs when they were born.. One of them is my brother. I wish they would have tied her tubes one of the many times she was in jail while she was pregnant.. She used that system. She would get locked up while she was pregnant so she could get methadone.. I dont know why I just said all that. I guess because I think yes.. She should be held accountable.. but death?
What a tough question in light of that fact that you can murder your child through abortion. If we say that murder is legal based on the fact that it is HER body and that she gets to make the decisions about what goes on in that body, then how can we penalize her for doing drugs? Isn’t it still her body and her choice to make? It’s a tough question. Our laws don’t protect an unborn baby, according to the laws they don’t have any rights until they are born….unfortunate isn’t it? SO legally based on existing laws, she shouldn’t get charged, unless we change the laws and start protecting innocent unborn babies….
If abortion is legal, then she should only be charged with drug possession/use.
If the gov’t operated like I think it should, she would not be charged with any drug-related crimes but would be for manslaughter or some sort of negligence.
She should also be charged for the attempted murder of herself, whether it was intended or not.
yes! and if she is convicted of first degree murder, then abortion should be illegal because it must have killed the baby in the womb if the baby was still born. How can a fetus be a baby in once instance and not in another? Grrr!
one of these days i want someone to acknowledge that I speak from training in what the law is, and that they speak of ignorance.
that’s all I want. you can still agree, but don’t go around acting like you know what “should” be.
@ihaveanalibi -
word, friend. It is so easy to judge from the outside.
I wish it were more amusing how quickly this degraded into an abortion discussion.. *sigh*
bye bye, Civil Rights — I’ll miss you!
If they can’t count abortion as murder, then they can’t really charge her for murder for this either. At the same time, the use of meth itself is illegal.
As a Christian, I’d still charge her for murder–whether it was an abortion or taking meth that killed the kid.
why? if she’d used RU-486 (mifepristone) she wouldn’t be behind bars.
(i think abortion or killing the fetus is wrong. i think there should be consequences. but i can’t believe that there’s such a dichotomy in the way we treat accidental and deliberate abortions.)
Man that was stupid. I think before they locking her up they determine if the baby was killed b/c of the mother’s use of drugs. There are ways they can determine that and there are other reasons for still birth. I think they should determine what caused the still birth (drugs or other reasons) and if it was the drugs she should be arrested and charged with whatever people get charged by killing babies. Also take into account what was the mother’s reason for doing drugs while pregnant. That should be a factor i believe.
Sure. But then all the women who drank during their pregnancies and their babies ended up with fetal alcohol syndrome should be charged with assault.
If she lives in Canada as I do, I would not recommend prison since she will learn new habits. I think she should be put into mandated rehab with post-rehab counselling. I say in Canada because our healthcare is cheaper for those down and under.
@RaVnR -
@EarthsAzureLight -
Actually the person can be charged with murder, in order for a murder to take place, you need 1 of 5 man endangering states of mind. they are as follows.
1. Intent to kill
2. Intent to Cause Serious Bodily Injury
3. Intent to do an act extremely likely to cause death or serious bodily injury with a reckless disregard for the consequences
4 Intent to Commit A Felony
5. Forcibly resisting a lawful arrest.
She had the intent to do drugs. She therefore had the intent to do an act extremely likely to cause death or serious bodily injury. therefore under the 3rd man endangering state of mind, she can and should be charged with murder. If you can prove that she had the intent to do an act (the act of taking the drugs) and you can prove that that act had the likelyhood of causing death or serious bodily injury. then you don’t need to prove that she had the intent to kill.
Oh, it’s murder all right. So is abortion, though. Some people on here were saying “Well, what if she doesn’t know it will hurt/kill the baby?” There’s a whole bunch of people who get put in jail for the unintentional killing of someone. If you’re driving and cause an accident in which someone is killed, you’re responsible. This woman is responsible for killing her child. She should have consequenses. (Same for people who have abortions.)
“one of these days i want someone to acknowledge that I speak from training in what the law is, and that they speak of ignorance.
that’s all I want. you can still agree, but don’t go around acting like you know what “should” be.”
a bit of an arrogant attitude…. while i agree with what you stated before, this particular comment is a bit ignorant, as you have no idea what training the people who agree or dissagree with you have had unless either you know them personally or they have told you.
@ProudToBeAChristianFruitcake -
Thanks anyway but I was paying attention in Criminal Law ^_^
what about other women who have stillborns…should they also be charged with murder even if they did everything by the book. you can’t charge her unless you can prove without any doubt that the baby being stillborn was the direct cause of her using drugs…
The thing about it is, there’s no way to tell if the mother’s drug-taking even had anything to do with the baby dying. As much hype as the “crack baby” frenzy brought out, studies are starting to show that taking some of these drugs may not have that big of an effect on the fetus (that said it’s still probably not a good idea to take them while pregnant, obviously).
And then there’s the slippery slope problem. When you start blaming the mother for the death of a fetus, how do you draw lines about culpability? Are we going to start blaming women for miscarriages and stillborn births? It’s incredibly dangerous ground to tread on.
@bluemarsupial - Nice point. Agreed.
If taking lots of caffeine to miscarry isn’t murder, this shouldn’t be either.
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1/30/2008 9:19 AM
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EarthsAzureLight
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NO, what the fuck.
Yes…….but I think manslaughter would be a more appropriate charge. Addicts do not think clearly. Community service, rehab, job training, and probation would be a fair sentence. No need to compound the tragedy.
Was it proven that the drugs caused the child to be stillborn?
That would make a huge difference, although she should be punished for doing something illegal!
L
I had the same thoughts as “Riftsong.” My first thought was “they can’t have it both ways.” I believe life begins at conception, so the harm done to the baby is murder. But then, I have to carry it even further. I smoked while I carried one of my children – does that mean I purposefully put them in danger? If we eat too much, or don’t eat the right foods, or we drink the wrong liquids, does this mean we are an abusive parent? The lines start getting fuzzy. Yes, the drugs are illegal. Is that what we base our decision on? Believe me, I would not smoke at all now (and don’t). I would make sure I ate only the right foods and I would stick to only water, milk and juices for liquids. I guess I just don’t want the double-standard thing going – abortion is wrong and killing the child with drugs is wrong. If they want to charge her with illegal drug use that is one thing, but for the murder of a child that the courts don’t even recognize as anything but a fetus?! Iffy at best. Change the court’s answer to “life begins at conception” and I would then say, “Yes.”
Did they determine cause of death to be drugs? If so, then sure. But since I doubt that they can prove that the drugs caused her child to be stillborn, I think no.
I think that we should leave it alone because we all have something that is a fault in others eyes. I say no.Leave her alone. She was not caught doing drugs..so she should not be punished for the drugs. The whole abortion thing..I agree,that is murder as well, but it is none of my business if they abort or not. Now the baby’s death,was it verified truth that the drugs killed the baby? It was all accidental then.Unless the mom was slowing trying to commit suicide as well as take her baby’s life..
Either way, I say she is sure to be torturing herself right now because of the guilt,the loss and the death itself. .. Leave her alone.
And funny thing I ask about drugs on my xanga and you come up with this..
Its a small world after all..
@EarthsAzureLight -
@EarthsAzureLight - So, if the baby, or as you call it, a parasite, is killed in the 9th month of pregnancy, that is ok? Your logic is false. A new born baby cannot survive on it’s own. It will die if not taken care of.
@EarthsAzureLight - so are you saying that its a parasite until its 4 years old? I know that my kids couldn’t make it on their own until about then.
The irony being that if she aborted it and truly explicitly intended to kill it once she was pregnant, there would be no trouble at all.
No, I do not think she deserves jail time. Jail should be reserved for dangerous people, not idiots.
I do not think that she should be charge in killing her unborn baby as long as abortion is legal. Same difference.
uhh…YEAH! Unless you live under a rock you know what drugs do to a baby…especially when it is forming! Whether she wants to take responsibility or not she knew what she was doing.
No. I do think she should probably go to rehab though.
People need to take responsibility for their actions. She was using illegal drugs…and she should be punished.
Absolutely!
Not to the extent of going to jail– Did she take it to kill the baby? Or was she addicted? All important questions-
Murder? Of a fetus?
No, that’s idiotic.
um no. .
1) a baby can STILL be born stillborn WITHOUT the drugs (can we really say for certain had she not taken the meth that she wouldn’t have had a stillborn?)
2) it’s legal to kill a baby anyhow (aka abortion)
Spending life in prison for what was clearly not intentional is just a waste of space, and gives our crime fighting prison scene a BAD NAME. It’s ALREADY overrun with drug convictions.
We do not need any more!
Manslaughter, maybe?
I’m sure you’re aware that this begs the question of, “How can our society be so double-minded?”. . .when she could have just had it killed legally in an abortion clinic.
Well…. First consideration was “did she know she was pregnant”… Second consideration was “was she addicted enough to this drug that it could be considered temporary insanity”…. Either way, she needs Rehab.
No.
Because I doubt she was thinking of that baby at all. Addicts are a different sort of breed; they don’t think like us.
Absolutely not!! Are you even freakin’ kidding me?!?! Next, they’ll put your grandparents in prison for exposing you to secondhand smoke as a child, if you happen to develop asthma in your adulthood. It can’t be proven that the drug use caused the baby to be stillborn. So, now we’re putting people in prison based solely on what “could have happened” rather than the actual proof behind it?!
Fuck this. I’m moving to Sweden.
RaVnR is right, intent most likely wasn’t there, and then you have the whole abortion thing… I don’t know. She should at least get help, though.
But unless she wants it, she won’t have anything to do with rehab.
No. It’s irresponsible, yes. But if we imprisoned every irresponsible adult, no one would walk the streets.
No. Drug charges, yes. Murder, absolutely not.
not life in prison! wtf?! rapists only get a few years!
Ugh. There is no motive, or passion or anything that really resembles murder in this case. However, it did occur. Yet, they are not able to tie the stillbirth to the meth use. Lots of problems with a case like this, which tells me that this is more about politics than it is about dead babies. If I was an attorney, I would probably be siding for this woman who suffers an ugly addiction. Meth addiction is no joking matter, I worked in a treatment center for women and children and definitely saw how powerful and how destructive the hold was on these women.
Should there be a charge? Yes. I just don’t know what that charge should be, she was using while pregnant and in many states, that is a crime.
It’s funny how many of your readers never read the link Dan.
I was under the same impression as a lot of people that crack/meth babies were in serious danger when exposed to those drugs in the womb. Going by the article you provided and like 5 mins of googling (so research not too extensive), how can I say yes? Since there appears a lack of correlation between her drug usage and the baby being born still born, there is no issue here.
Now if there was a correlation between her usage and the baby being born still, then you actually have an issue….and my answer is still no. Abortion is legal and this would be merely negligence not first degree murder.
she should be charged with the drug use. But what’s the difference between that and an abortion? abortion is legal, so I don’t think they should be able to charge her with murder on this one. It’s tragic, sure enough, but maybe that’s better for the kid in the end. How much better do you think it would be for the kid to be raised by a drug addict mother?
No.
When she could have aborted the thing and been okay? Hello, double-standard.
Does everyone who have an abortion go to jail?
No. That’s absurd.
It’s wrong. I hate that it happened. But it’s still absurd.
She took methamphetamine not a prescription drug. She knew there were risks to her body and to an unborn child if she took them. If she chose not to get help to get off the drugs, she needs to be held accountable. I don’t believe that she premeditated murder of her unborn child, but she sure didn’t care whether or not the drugs harmed the baby. At the very least it is negligent homicide.
The only difference between this and abortion is……..
i don’t know how a country that allows abortion can accuse someone of murder for killing their child by taking drugs.
How????? people get abortions everyday, what is that? Is a baby more of a baby when you are closer to delivery? Is it nothing before??? This is a hard question….I think every life is precious….
Lots of things cause stillborns. I don’t know how they could prove it was the drugs that caused it.
@Happy_Feet_99 - I’m talking on a biological level.
@LSP1 - Speaking biologically.
what the hell….no way.
who exactly is filing the law suit? her husband? her baby?
This is a dangerous precedent to set. If you do meth and your baby is stillborn and it is decided you committed murder, then what about smokers?
What about mothers who eat tuna sushi in New York after the times reported the high levels of mercury?
What about not getting enough exercise? What about gaining too much weight?
What about not being absolutely perfect in any sense?
But then again, you know me.
Only a sith deals in absolutes.
Not in my opinion. We can’t make people take care of themselves when they’re pregnant. Which is a big reason why I support people having the right to decide whether or not to be pregnant.
Plus, lots of women have stillborn – are we absolutely one hundred percent sure that the drug use caused it? If we’re not, then all this is based on supposition, which doesn’t cut it.
This issue hits close to home. One of our relatives was on meth when she had her last baby and the baby was born with severe developmental issues. The woman was in jail for a little while after the baby was born but we don’t know if this was because of the meth-birth or not; could have easily been any number of things that landed her there. In the meantime, while she is out and about and having a life right now, the baby has been adopted by a loving couple who are willing to accept all of the challenges that go along with raising a developmentally challenged child.
Anyway, yes, Theresa should face charges because of her drug use and it’s affect on her unborn child. Also, Theresa should receive therapy as part of her rehabilitation and sentencing. It would be a better future situation if she never used drugs again.
She shouldn’t be charged with murder. If someone’s addicted to a drug before they’re pregnant, they probably can’t do anything about it at the time. Even if they did seek help, the stress of quitting could kill a baby. Also, abortions are legal (and I believe they should be) and this isn’t much different.
It’s tough. The concept of charging someone is a very slippery slope. Someone who smokes cigarettes could cause their fetus severe harm or possibly death.
There is no “mens rae.” Meaning no criminal intent to harm someone. So whoever said manslaughter rather than murder was correct. The problem is that you get prosecutors who seek to make careers rather than do justice.
If people can kill babies legally while their in the women’s body than this women shouldn’t be prosecuted
No, unless they throw every parent that smokes while pregnant
Lock up the crackwhores, lock up the addicts, lock up the would be baby mommas, lock up the gays, lock up the baby daddies who skipped town, lock up the lawyers and lock up the politicians.
definitely NO.
if you can charge this woman with first-degree murder, you can charge any woman who had abortions with first-degree murder.
i know everyone hates the woman and wants to punish her. but hatred/punishment is not the answer. education and treatments are.
this was an accidental abortion. charged with first-degree murder? be rational here.
Um, how are they going to get proof that the drugs are specifically what killed the baby? That just seems like a stupid court case to me.
She SHOULD get in trouble for using drugs, but not for murder. She probably didn;t intend to harm the baby, she just has an addiction.
No, it’s not murder. If we started locking up women who do stupid things when they are pregnant, well, we’d certainly cut down the population. haha
everyone who does that should be punished. She knew what she was doing, the drug is illegal, and she killed a baby. Whats worse than that? If there is one thing I can’t stand, it is taking the life of someone who hasn’t got to experience life yet. Like the man who threw his kids off the bridge or the woman who drowned hers in the bathtub. They were too young to do anything about it, they trusted mommy, they trusted daddy, they loved them. What are you thinking when mommy or daddy kills you? The man threw a four month old off a bridge. Thats not even old enough to crawl or hold its head. SICK!
While I agree with her punishment…and I never think drugs are ever okay…..
it’s still a double standard.
You can get an abortion up to a certain point in your pregnancy to where the fetus looks like a shriveled up baby…yet it’s not considered murder, but you can take drugs and the child can die inside of you…and that’s murder?
Abortion is just as bad, invading the safe place where your child grows, and harming it to a point of death, you can define drugs as invading the safe place your child grows and taking drugs to the point of harming it to death. its the same damn thing…
so there should be millions of women in prison for the murder of their children, and the doctors performing these abortions should be accomplice to murder.
Or, that woman should be freed stating self abortion. there ya go.
Unless they plan on charging every woman who has ever had an abortionw iwth murder, then they can’t charge her.
Its tragic, but charged with murder? Thats too far.
She should be held accountable for her actions. How, I dont know. Perhaps forced sterilisation? She has demonstrated that she doesnt care. What happens if her next pregnancy produces a child with foetal alcohol syndrome or some other drug related disability. Her carelessness and inhumanity will result in a life of hardship and perhaps suffering for her child. Children are born with disabilities all the time. Its a fact of life and nature. But this wasnt an accident. It was intentional disregard and she should pay.
i dont think she should b/c still births can be caused by a lot of things. yea she did drugs but is that 100 the reason it died?
Yes. But “Murder” and “Life imprisonment” is too severe. Whatever the charge, the woman needs more than punishment, she needs help.
Meth ups the sex drive, which is probably why she got pregnant in the first place. Some judges may think they’re “teaching her a lesson” by imprisoning her for murder. But, the real question is, does the loss of her child have any effect on her? Was it punishment enough? Who knows without talking to her?
prove the drugs did it.
Nuff said.
I have read this link awhile back and there is no medical research to prove that the drugs caused the stillbirth. If you read the link you will know that. So how can you charge her with murder if you can’t prove what she did caused it. Its asinine she needs treatment not to feel worse about what happened to her baby. And my bet is she was an addict well before she got pregnant and stopping meth is hard not like oh i had a positve test i need to stop taking this drug now which you can do with smoking and yet i see women smoking while pregnant all the time and there is lots of medical research to prove that it is extremely harmful to a developing baby. Not to mention smoking around a baby increases there risk of SIDS by a whole bunch. But I will stop ranting now.
No.
I think there is something else going on here.
I say no. There are many babies born to drug-using women. Can it be proved without reasonable doubt that this mother gave birth to a stillborn child as a result of her drug use? It may have played its role in the process but, was it the only cause?
Sounds kind of like abortion. Except maybe the intention wasn’t there.
How very sad that she got herself addicted to meth, chose to continue her consumption after becoming aware that she was pregnant, and wound up killing her child…please someone cue the violins. She may not have intended on killing her child, but if a person got behind the wheel of a car drunk and killed someone would we not prosecute them even though their intent wasn’t to kill anyone?
they cannot convict of her killing her baby if she can legally go pay someone to kill her baby…
that is what we call a double-standard.
Well, as I understand it, “facing charges” just means that it should go to trial, not that she should be guilty. So yes, I believe she should face charges, so that it can be investigated whether or not her drug use is what caused the still-birth. I’m assuming of course that such a thing could be determined with an autopsy or something like that.
Also, one thing that I don’t think I’ve seen brought up, is how developed the baby was when it was delivered. I don’t know much about still-births, but it seems like the baby had developed farther along than what is legal for abortions. Abortions are only legal up to a certain point, and this baby was still-born at 32 weeks, full term. An abortion at that point is surely illegal.
As for those saying that if she’s guilty, so should the smokers and drinkers, I disagree. Smoking and drinking is legal for people of a certain age, with no stipulations in law for being pregnant or not. Strong warnings, but no laws. However, the drugs she was using are illegal under all circumstances.
But I also agree that she should face charges for manslaughter, and not murder. I don’t think she intended to kill. And as far as I know, which isn’t much, and unintentional killing is called manslaughter. She should face charges for this so they can try to find out if the baby was killed by the drugs, or just by chance.
We live in a society where people are allowed daily to make the decision to keep there child or not through abortion. This lady was making that same decision but in a different way.
She was putting herself before her child, this is common in our culture. We are always contradicting ourselves with what is right and what is wrong. We will call her a murderer yet line pregnant high school girls up to get abortions all done under safe confidentiality laws that don’t even allow there parents to know. Somethings not right!
i think its horrible that she used drugs while still pregnant… but being charged for it? i’m pretty sure she’s not the first to give birth while taking drugs…
no! Ericka_Steele said it.
No. That’s a bit of harsh punishment I might say. I heard a murder case where this man killed his wife for cooking a bad dinner. The judge felt sorry for him and sentence him 7 years in jail. Couple years later he was charged for killing his second wife for also making a bad dinner (they got the food burn a little) and was sentence another 8 years in jail. So, how come he gets away with a few years in jail for killing two people over a silly reason? And this lady made a mistake and to go to jail for life time. Are you serious!
Yes, I think that she should face charges.