Microwave + Baby + Crazy Mother = Tragedy

[Brandon]

When you thought you heard it all. I am astonished that a human being could be so cruel.

A mother is accused of placing her newborn daughter inside of a microwave oven turning it on and killing her.

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[sarah]

Just WOW.
I fail to understand how people can do things like this.

 

[FourBear]

Seriously. Where do people get ideas like this? I think it says something about the state of our society. If it's not a microwave, it's drowning kids in the tub. So sad.

 

[dong]

The state of society? I doubt that it is any different from other times, really- the only change being that we have a microwave oven available for such purposes. As this article does well to differentiate, there are some cases where such behavior is not autonomous. I recall a documentary on sleepwalkers and some of the behavior there is beyond ordinary comprehension.

I would be interested to know the motives behind this particular case, if there were any.

 

[tater03]

Maybe you are right and there are factors we are unaware of. But I have trouble wrapping my mind around any reason that would cause a mother to do something like this. I will be the first to say that I don't understand actions like this either.

 

[mamab]

Tater, you're not alone in not understanding. I can't understand either. I'm sure that the lawyers will use the "mentally incompetent" plea or "post-partum depression" to try to get her off.

 

[dong]

Post-partum depression may very well be a significant factor in the behavior. I can think of a feasible psycho-pathological profile and mechanism leading to the alleged act, for one. The real matter is whether such a plea is faithful to what actually happened.

In one sense people are right to be cynical of such pleas, but this does have a rather detrimental effect of continuing the stigma of mental illness and its behavioral effects. The real problem is the nature of the law system and appointment of counsel.

 

[hokeshel]

It is true that post partum is very hard to understand and very hard to explain. After my first child, I was riving down the road one day and thought, I should drive my car off of this overpass. I don't know why I thought it. The thought wasnt' even about dying, just a strange thought.I had never thought of anything like it before but, it scared me and I immediately got help. I was diagnosed with severe postpartum depression. Often, the women have a sudden impulse but, if they do not act on it, they realize the horror of it. I think they are afraid to get help when they start haivng these thoughts. But, I also think that it is overused as an excuse. Some people are just evil. It sickens me.

 

[mamab]

I'm not saying that post-partum depression isn't a valid mental issue. What I'm saying is that whether the woman was/is suffering from it, her lawyer will likely use that as her "reason" for doing what she did.

It's a shame the medical profession can't test a woman for the possibility of developing post-partum depression, but they can sure find a hundred drugs that will help a man maintain an erection.

 

[Reason]

The other other white meat.

 

[dong]

It's a shame the medical profession can't test a woman for the possibility of developing post-partum depression, but they can sure find a hundred drugs that will help a man maintain an erection.

Yes, it definitely has been identified as a huge issue- which makes me wonder whether this is even possible, given our current work in the psychiatric fields. Maybe one should look around for studies done on the 'aetiology of post-partum depressoin'.