Since we have been talking about cannibalism in both the Oresteia and the Spelunker trail I thought this recent investigation was interesting, though on a different moral premise than the other two.
In San Antonio, Texas, there was a mother of an infant son who suffers from schizophrenia and postpartum depression. This mother had recently broken-up with the father and was living with her parents and her sister and her sister's two kids. A week after the seperation polica respond around 5 a.m. to a 911-phone call. They found that the mother had stabbed herself in the heart and stomach and that the infant dead and grossly mutliated. They later figured out that the mother had disifigured the infant, ate three of his toes, decapitated him, and ate parts of the brain. This was all done because the devil told the mother to do it, or so she says. There are reports that the mother was in and out of therapy and treatment for her conditions.
While all of this is unsettling, the question for this class is not is the mother at fault but rather, given this situation what should her punishment be? While the mother is schizophrenic, it should be noted that the father is as well and that he is calling for the death penalty. I assume that he wants the mother to suffer. This is one of the reasons for law that we discused in class. But as a society should we take a life out of revenge or should we try to help this woman with her illness?
(All information was gathered at FOX News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535300,00.html?sPage=fnc/us/crime http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534940,00.html)
Well if you ask me the mother in question shouldn't be punished at all. Clearly she has a history of mental illness, that the family most likely knew about, so the child should have never even been in her custody. It's not her fault that the system failed her, she was forced into a situation that she couldn't cope with and in her mind did what she thought to be logical. I feel that it is our duty to help this woman that we failed in the first place to protect. I think that to call for the death of such a troubled person is way over the line, no matter how terrible the crime. If any punishment is due she should be put into a hospital where she can be monitored and properly cared for.
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ReplyDeleteI disagree with Jacob, the system did try to help her. She was given treatment, and clearly it did not work.First, as twisted as this may sound, she is a flaw in nature. She has commited an act thats pure evil. She should be punished with the death penalty. Second, putting her in a hospital and trying to treat her after its been shown she has such a capacity for savageness is a sickening idea. Plenty of mentally ill patients can cope with their illness'. Having someone who cant is no different than a sane person who cant cope with some type of trauma. Sane people commit crimes due to the inability to cope, yet they are still punished. Why should she not be?
ReplyDeleteps: I tried to edit my post but it wouldnt let me. So I just reposted it.
The death penalty is the stupidest thing America has ever dispatched as a viable punishment. The States that use the death penalty are run by backwards, ignorant, and obviously not that well educated people. Two wrongs don't make a right and an eye for an eye will leave you blind. I don't care what the crime is, letting someone off the hook for any crime by letting them leave this world is absurd. Life sentences are more viable, make the murderer work in the fields for the rest of her life. Simply injecting three syringes and ending one's life is another example of the failures of our government. The government chokes when it has to do some sort of "work", it would much rather close the file and move on to the next case (which is what capital punishment is). The death Penalty severely threatens the integrity of whatever morals are left from the founding of this country.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that this woman should have been punished with the death penalty. Her family should have known of her illness and even if help didn't work out for her, her family should of still known enough to not let her alone with the children. I agree with Jacob when he said that she should be put in a hospital where she can be cared for and monitored, not put to death.
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