Andrea Yates verdict - huh?

[Lissa]

How about this, Lissa? Get a second opinion from another Doctor. They don't all agree on a great deal. As to post partum depression . . . is this a recent phenomenon, brought about by the self fulfilling prophecies of psychiatrists to up their case load and income, or was it a typical response of women over many millenia to now and again drown a new born baby? It would seem to me, under the Darwinian model, to be a self defeating trait or habit, and one rather easily bred out in two ways:

1. Most babies of such ladies dying, and so the recessive or dominant gene not getting passed on
2. Killed by clan/tribe/family group for killing a baby, a rational response by clan/tribe/family group, given the biological survival imperative to keep the clan a going concern.

So, I offer item

6) Get a large wood chipper, and feed Andrea Yates into it.

I don't care what the excuse is for her behaviour -- "the Demons made me do it" seems to have prevailed at the moment -- drowning your own five children goes beyond the pale by any standard.

Pete mentioned euthanasia. That is a far kinder method than the one I suggested, so I'll come halfway and accept that as a good enough solution. But since it is rational, and the workings of our legal system are based on manipulating the emotions of a jury, it has no chance to be implemented.

Occhi

Occhi, the next doctor probably would have said the same thing. She was diagnosis with Post Partum Depression after the birth of her first child. If she and her husband had followed the doctors directive, that child would probably still be alive and she would be in PPD not PPP (Psychosis).

Another factor here, everyone wants to lay blame squarely on her, but most seem to not think one wit about the fact that her husband is also at fault in all this. He pushed to have more children against the wishes of the doctor causing her to slip into PPP. He knew that she was unstable as it was. Simply put, he showed quite a bit of negligence on his part and what's happened to him?

What happened is a tragedy, but the fact is, it could have been prevented years ago if the measures had been taken then.