Quote: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
What always puzzled me about those "demons" is that they always made those people kill others, not themselves. Pretty convenient demons.
As far as post partum. My wife had that after our first was born. Her strongest desire was to just run away (which of course she did not do). Killing your own kids? That's not post partum. That's post-human... or maybe pre-human.
Of course, in a country where everything is a disease, from obesity to flatulence to smelly feet, none of the opinions on this forum are too surprising.
-A