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Postpartum Evil

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Media Link - New York Post
Written by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.   
Wednesday, 27 June 2001 00:00
A Houston woman, as most are aware by now, has been arrested for drowning her five children. Her guilt for this horrendous multiple murder does not seem to be in question. Her moral responsibility, incredibly enough, is. Who rises to her defense? The usual cast of characters we have come to expect on such tragic occasions: the psychiatrists. They claim she suffered from postpartum depression, and that this depression "drove" her to commit the drownings. Depression does not "drive" people to do anything against their value systems (presuming they even have value systems). Consider that the great majority of women who do happen to suffer from postpartum depression do not even come close to killing their offspring. Why don't they step forward and express outrage over such a ridiculous defense? To excuse a child killer due to depression is to insult the many depressed people who happen to possess self-restraint, ethics, and basic human decency. It seems to me, as a mental health professional, that the law should not only protect mentally troubled people, but also innocent young children -- even from their own parents, if necessary. There is an enormous moral and psychological distinction between a postpartum depressed mother who snaps at her family for a few days, versus a monstrous killer who (depressed or not) viciously snuffs out the lives of her five helpless and innocent children. Depression does not a murderer make. No pill or form of therapy will "reason" this woman into an ethical state. You cannot psychologically heal a morally bad person.
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