Postpartum Depression - is it an excuse to kill your child?
By Foxxee
@Foxxee (3651)
United States
December 15, 2006 5:01am CST
How do you feel about parents out there, mainly mothers, who have murdered their child/children and then they cry that they suffer from postpartum depression and that is why they killed their child/children?
Should they walk free just because they cry "I have postpartum depression"?
I strongly am against this. I think if you kill your child/children you should do life in a regular state prison, just like everyone else. You should not get special attention because you have an illness like postpartum.
Postpartum doesn't give you a right to kill your child. I think that is a lame excuse and it pisses me off.
I'm sickened by the news when I hear about mothers who killed their child/children and then use the postpartum excuse.
For an example:
Andrea Yates and Susan Smith - they both killed their children and then they tried to say that postpartum was the reason.
Murder is murder.
What do you think?
10 responses
@mrsturner (518)
• Canada
25 Feb 07
I have a big problem with antone using any kind of mental disability as an excuse for criminal behaviour. Even a child (from under two) knows that it is not okay to hurt someone so unless they are handicapped to the point that they should be institutionalized I think that they should be held responsible for murder, rape, or any other crimes against another person.
1 person likes this
@4cuteboys (4099)
• United States
28 May 07
I totally agree. I think many of those mothers are abusing the system by saying that as well. Even if its true and they do have PPD they can't justify killing their children. There is no excuse for that, it's horrific in my eyes. For children to have to die at the hands of the parents is just WRONG and they should be locked away like all the other criminals.
1 person likes this
@margieanneart (26423)
• United States
22 Mar 07
You are absolutely right. I agree with you all the way. Murder is murder, period.
1 person likes this
@rick615 (413)
• United States
11 Jan 07
While I can't go as far as you have, saying murder is murder; I have a lot of trouble with the two cases you refer to. Both of these I think are very questionable in terms of whether true Post Partum depression existed. And even if it did, at the time of the occurrance, I am not convinced that that is what caused them to act the way they did.
I do believe there are cases of severe mental illness where the person may not be responsible. But not the two cases you mentioned.
For me this is even closer to home. Here in colorado, my county, a mother killed her two young children by drowning them in the bathtub. She too, claimed mental illness. The trouble that I have is that I actually know this individual and her reputation for a few years before this occured. She essentially was known as a pathological liar. Now she is known as a muderer. I don't buy her defense and like many here, was infuriated that she was sent to the mental hospital and deemed, 'not guilty by reason of insanity'.
Try this link if you want to read the story I am referencing: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6892974/
I agree with the spirit of what you have said. These cases are abuses of our criminal justice system. We can only hope they are the wretched exceptions that prove the rule of justice. It is hard to keep the faith when we keep reading about similar cases, though......
1 person likes this
@stacyv81 (5903)
• United States
25 Jun 07
mental illnesses are not taken as seriously as they need be. I think people and their loved ones, are taught at the hospital how to learn the signs of postpartum and should be concerned enough to notice if the new mother exhibits any of these signs. I do not have the right to judge a woman who has had postpartum depression, as I have never gone through it. I know it is real, and I know it can be detremental. I do not think it is an excuse to kill your child, I think anyone who deliberatly kills their child and uses it as an excuse is horrible and makes it worse for those who actually have postpartum depression, to be taken seriously, However who am I to judge.
@ryannick214 (2)
• United States
9 Jun 09
There is a big difference between postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. It is a very unthinkable act to any right minded human being to kill and child, and especially to any woman who is a mother. However, the words "right minded" are the key words. These women are not claiming postpartum depression, though those are the words the media may use. They are claiming postpartum psychosis. They are not in any type of normal or sane state of mind. It is very hard to sympathize when you have not gone through those states of mental insanity. Those woman are not using it as an "excuse" to get away with murder. There were many documented instances of psychosis these women exhibited which many people (mainly due to lack of knowledge of this mental disorder)chose not to make better preventative decisions. Yates was on and off psychotic medications and she had her 5th child against her psychiatrists recommendations. And I ask you, if you were aware of her psychotic episodes and severe medication needs, would leave your 5 children alone with her? But that's exactly what her mother and husband did when she drowned her children. And I am not placing blame on them, but yates was not exactly set up for success. I'm not saying they are in the right but they are not using this mental incapacity as an excuse. With Yates having this disorder to this severity, even if she had not committed these crimes on her children, she would still require a lifetime in a mental institution.
@ryannick214 (2)
• United States
9 Jun 09
Sorry I didn't mean to add a comment to previous person's comment. Just wanted to add my own separate comment
@Foxxee (3651)
• United States
10 Jun 09
Yes, I do know about postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis both. What I also know is that postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis are also very much alike. The mother has excessive thoughts of maternal inadequacy or thoughts of wanting to harm her newborn/child with postpartum depression and with postpartum psychosis.
I still don't think it's an excuse and mothers with this mental illness should still be charged with murder.
I do also feel that in the Yates case that nobody else is to blame. I feel that Mr. Yates just wasn't educated enough about his wifes illness. I'm sure he had no idea she could harm their children.
Maybe the system is to blame because of the lack of education they teach us about this illness.
Either way, not enough people know the signs of these illnesses & they should. Maybe if more husbands, friends, family members are aware of the signs, they can help the mother before its to late.
@jenbatres (799)
• United States
15 Jan 07
I think it is wrong. I suffered from postpartum depression and never hurt my child. If the mother knows they are suffereing from postpartum depression, then they need to get help . . . bottom line there is no excuse. If they can't take care of their kids then they should call family or friends to help. If there is no family or friends then they should call a social worker so the family can get the help it needs.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
20 Jun 07
You should not use postpartum depression to kill your children. If you have a mental problem you get help, but it is either a mental problem (in which there would be signs or probably an excuse to get rid of the problems, i.e. children who act like kids and not like little automations. Did you notice that the majority of the children killed were boys.
@vivekk20 (185)
• India
25 Feb 07
as you sad this does not means that postpartum depression does not exist . in most cases of post partum psychosis there is most common finding is that these sufferers have ideas to harm their newborn. this the pathological thinking , this is not as simple as cospiracy. for those who do not understand psychiatric illness they must go through the literature before reaching a conclusion.
