So, scary, scary possible precedent.

Also, I have to wonder how much her location (UT) had to do with this event? Would it have happened in CA, say?

A bunch of rabid anti-choice types went ballistic at the suggestion of a dangerous precedent being set in a similar thread at Wizbang; I’ll say the same thing I said, and that Amp said: the facts are murky, at best.

And, where was the father of these twins? The most recent articles state she was estranged/divorced or had a boyfriend. I also had the same thought- was she mentally ill? The other thing that stuck me was that all her comments seemed really, really strange. The articles, so far, all appear VERY biased against her.

It’s also my opinion (as a parent) that this woman is a piece of human garbage. Maybe you have to have kids to understand this, but your health and happiness, even your very life, is secondary to your child’s needs.

Can’t the media find a better picture of this woman? But then again…nothing screams “Baby Killer” like a nappy haired, lobotomy eyed, mouth-breather pic.

Please go read the post at body and soul ( http://bodyandsoul.typepad.com/blog/2004/03/charges.htm ) and the responses to it.

Jean IS a mother and she certainly doesn’t believe that the mother who is being charged is “human garbage.” In fact, I believe she argues quite successfully that part of the problem is that society has, perhaps inadvertantly, treated her (and, imho, consequently her children) like garbage through its failure to adress her mental health problems.

Secondly, I disagree, as do many, that the mother in question “[knew] [she] could save [her] child’s life.” I have yet to hear it said that the doctors even claimed that a c-section was necessary to save either child’s life; by all accounts I have read, they simply advised the procedure.

As Plig says more eloquently than I could on Jean’s site:

“I don’t see how someone can be prosecuted for not following medical advice…. Doctors have been known to make errors in judgment and advice, and we patients must be allowed to take that into account.

I’m pretty sure that, if she’d chosen to have the surgery and had then died…the medical staff would be the first to plead that she had chosen the operation of her own free will (and had signed a disclaimer to that effect).”

“I’ve never refused a C-section. I’ve already had two prior C-sections. Why would I say something like that?”

And kindly stop your patronizing blather about how you can’t possibly care about kids unless you have them. Plenty of parents out there are pro-choice, and plenty of parents out there can sympathize with someone not wanting to be cut from the breastbone to the pubic bone–which is the impression a nurse said Rowland was given.

If you care so much about kids, maybe you can push for better housing, schools that are structurally sound and well-supplied, and healthcare for the kids who are already walking the earth.

Thank you neko, I couldn’t quite figure how to say that without sounding like an ass.

I’ve always suspected that the parents who assert that people without kids can’t possibly care enough to make any type of informed decision regarding policies that affect children and parents are the type that didn’t care about polices affecting children until they became parents.

The type that voted against school bonds before they became parents, campaigned for school bonds once they became parents, and will likely go back to voting against school bonds once their kids have graduated.

You know, like the parents who were all up in arms because my local school district planned on putting the new high school in (gasp!) a residential area of all places. (Unruly teenagers walking down the street while my cute little kindergardener plays in the front yard? Never, you baby-hating politicians!) They, of course, changed their tune once they heard about all the fancy stuff that would be going into the new school, and then realized that THEIR kids would get to use all that fancy stuff in another few years, instead of being stuck at the old school.

And for anyone who thinks that I exaggerate, my bio teacher, who lived in the area, spent quite a lot of time complaining to the class about the location of the school, until the day he came in rhapsodizing about the equipment he would get to use if he was able to get transferred there.