American woman charged with murder after a stillbirth

[Mibby]

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/24/america-pregnant-women-murder-charges

I really cant decide what I think about this. What do others think?

I've read that in some Native American communities, pregnant women can be imprisoned until the birth to prevent them drinking or drug taking.

Barbaric.

I don't think they should be imprisoned, but they definitely need help. The FAS rate among Native Americans is thirty times higher than the rest of the population.

It's not really ok to take drugs wile pregnant though, is it?

(Not necessarily something to prosecute, but where do you draw the line between public education and public prosecution, public education and a certain amount of vilification? Vilification is always regrettable, but not everyone is going to have enough subtleness of mind to avoid this. Obviously the line to take is to educate and provide services for women who want to get off drugs while pregnant or at any other time, instead of prosecution, imo, where drugs are concerned, but for some pregnancy is the event that focuses them on the necessity of getting clean, so the 'cult of motherhood/ sacredness of the foetus' may have some positive effects.)

..while...

I AM ANTI abortion but

"If it's not a crime for a mother to intentionally end her pregnancy, how can it be a crime for her to do it unintentionally, whether by taking drugs or smoking or whatever it is," by the lawyer

i mean its tha law man.

morally - we could have a whole pother arguemnt

but law is law and that is law

and america is proper fucked up

i think its v. easy for me to say i am anti abortion when i live where i do - whereas if i found myself raped and pregnant in an state where no one had the expertise, there were no facitilities etc. then i might be signing a different tune

The reason that "the law is the law" is because the act was designed to protect wanted unborn children from being harmed due to domestic violence, etc. So if I were pregnant and murdered, my murderer could conceivably be charged with my death and my child's.

But now some people are saying that "well, the law is the law, so if Scott Peterson can be charged for murdering his unborn son, then the woman whose drug use causes her to miscarry can be charged with murder too."

There comes a point where laws need to be taken on a case by case basis, and I think this is one of them.

Custardo "America" is not "proper fucked up," thank you. There are some politicians who'd fit that criteria, though.

It's not ok to take drugs ever, they are illegal. Still many people do. And it is right to prosecute them for doing so. Charging a pregnant women with murder because of an illness (addiction) is not.