I think feminism has probably altered how women view their lot, Heeven, but not to a homicidal extent. I don't believe that this is a new phenomenon. Medea comes to mind, just for starters.
Oh, patiodog said it first. I like his conclusion.
Also... wouldn't resentment of the male partner lead to harm being done to the male partner, not the child(ren)?
Also, such words as "should" imply that humans are ultimately rational beings, when any observation of human behavior would seem to indicate that we are largely irrational beings. This language-and-reason thing is a very recent development, and we still carry around that pre-language, pre-reason brain with us. I think it's important that we try to understand it, and this means understand what's going on in the brain of a murderer (perhaps especially in the brain of a murderer) as much as in the brain of a normal person.
a. Why not wait until there has actually been some real attempt to assess the woman before deciding her sanity! If she is not normally a violent and abusive mother, then her behaviour is so extreme as to indicate SOMETHING very major has occurred in her mental state.
b. How interesting that it is this case of a woman killing her children that raises such speculation about place of women in society - does the killing of children by fathers - in my country often associated with family court matters - raise the same level of surprise and concern? This is a genuine question, since it does not do so in my country - but there is a clear tendency to be especially punitive when women commit violent crimes.
c. Heeven - I certainly, personally, would not accept any less of a commitment to children by their father than by me - and I am fortunate to live in a milieu where such is accepted - and promoted and indeed demanded - by the men as as well as the women.
Parenting, no matter the situation, is stressful - the stresses change over time - eg from multi-parity to juggling work and home - but homicide by women of older children fortunately remains rare - so rare as to raise clear concerns re the mother's mental health - if, as I said, she has not previously been abusive.
A rush to judgement and a desire for revenge is attractive when one feels outraged - but in my experience greater knowledge brings greater compassion.
...or you could just burn the witch - that's an oldy, but a goody...
dlowan wrote:b. How interesting that it is this case of a woman killing her children that raises such speculation about place of women in society - does the killing of children by fathers - in my country often associated with family court matters - raise the same level of surprise and concern? This is a genuine question, since it does not do so in my country - but there is a clear tendency to be especially punitive when women commit violent crimes.
IMO, this is just a matter of social conditioning. We heard about father's killing there off-spring for centuries. Mother's have killed their children all along as well but it's still infrequent in comparison.
It's kind like the news of any major crime in a large city vs. the same crime in a small town. In the metropolis it happens every day and just becomes a footnote buried in page 27 of that days paper. In the tiny town it's talked about forever and becomes a reference point in the town's history.
Complete aside here, not at all germaine to the thread: when was the last time you saw a national news story about a missing child who wasn't white?
My point exactly, Fishin'. Or important amongst my points.
Mr. Hinteler, I came to conclusio argued by you by means of the so called ex juvantibus method. The remedies that suppress the most prominent symptoms of schizophrenia, such as delirium and hallucinations tend to suppress certain receptors in brain, namely, those responsive to dopamine. From the other side, suppression of the acethylcholine-sensitive receptors by some substances (e.g., athropine) causes brief psychotic condition, resembling schizophrenia. Imbalance of activity of different receptors in the central nervous system is obviously responsible for development of psychotic disorders.
The very fact of hereditary predisposition to schizophrenia (supposedly autosomal recessive, but I am not sure) shows that the biochemical processes should definitely be involved. Genes in chromosomes do not program features directly, they program synthesis of protheins, both structural and enzymatic ones. And abnormal proteins resulting from genetic defect may obviously impair certain physiological processes in the body.
Patiodog - I've brought the same thing up, on another thread - even citing examples of little black girls who somehow don't make the national radar like an Elizabeth Smart. As I remember it, I got pretty much shouted down for "trying to make everything racial".
snood -- it's glaring to me. Especially when I lived in Chicago, I knew that women were going missing on a regular basis down by United Center and the U of I campus there, but it didn't register on the news.
Completely off topic, though...
I'm amazed that this woman used a rock. I read somewhere that women are much more likely to kill using methods that don't mess up the body... poisoning, for example, or drowning. It does make her seem particularly mentally deranged that she'd bludgeon them. The point about the greater likelihood of men killing their children is true, I think. There is a story every week about some man who kills a baby or toddler in some horrible way, beating or tossing out the window... and these guys frequently get what seems to be minimal news coverage and, in the end, minimal sentencing.
This also makes me wonder... if God said to do something and it was a bad thing, wouldn't that be a test.... which she has failed? This is such a sad, sad story.
Heeven wrote:The woman is sane. If she was coherent enough to realize what a telephone was for, and use it to dial 9-1-1 then she was sane enough to know that killing her children was wrong. If God told her to do it and she believed it was the right thing to do then why did she dial 9-1-1? Because, she knew what she had done was wrong!
This woman was not sane at the time the alleged murders took place. Why medical help is never offered to these women, prior to these incidents, is beyond comprehension.
Again...the legal and medical definitions of insanity do not agree. It's time for the legal definitons to change.
So it's everyone elses fault BUT the mother, right?
If she was able to call 911 after killing her kids - I wish she had been able to call 911 before doing it.
