Andrea Yates verdict - huh?

[kandrathe]

There's a world of difference as far as self-control in not eating, and self-control in KILLING YOUR OWN KIDS. If this female (and I am using that term to describe here, as she is definately not a woman) was institutionalized and broke out to go kill her kids, then I could see how she is a complete psycho case and really should just be put back in. However, that is not the case. This is an individual who was living among us. She was normal enough to have a husband and to function in our society. She is normal enough to face real punishment.

If someone has a "moment", that does not give them a carte blanche to do whatever. Some things are understandable, but there's a limit.
-A

She was abnormal enough to be prescribed anti-psychotic medication which helped her return to near normal behavior. When she became pregnant again at her husbands urging she had to stop taking that medication for fear it would affect the new babies developing brain. It's never a good thing when a known psychotic person goes off their medication and are not being actively observed in a psychiatric ward.

Her husband, and our society should have done a better job in protecting her children from a known psychotic who was off her medication.

Like I said above... People who are psychotic will sometimes do very violent and irrational things for the craziest notions. They are typically delusional, suffer grandiosity, and a clear break with reality. In their messed up brain wiring it would be perfectly acceptable to kill all the people in a town because the TV told them to do it. I met a guy on suicide watch once who believed that the reason he was compelled to do evil things was because Satan had cleaved him in two with a demon blade and touched his heart. He believed his only recourse now was to kill himself by plunging a purified dagger into his unclean heart.

Read this for some insight into brain function and psychosis.

But, as Lissa presented... There may be hope and treatments for people that exhibit psychotic or schizoprenic behaviors as we begin to understand brain and endocrine function more completely. This doesn't make him a bleeding heart liberal, but a person who is willing to look the facts in enough detail to take a measured opinion. The Yates case is a very sad situation for everyone involved in it and exemplifies how broken our society is at times. Her husband, her doctors, her other relatives should have had her committed.

Essentially, I feel you are making the case that anyone who is broken (to the point of being a threat) should be thrown away. Society therefore doesn't have the time or money to try to fix anyone deemed to be dangerous, so if someone exhibits a scary defect it would be better to get rid of them. There are about 2.2 to 3 million Americans who exhibit psychotic symptoms according to the NIMH. How many should we kill?

I think Doc is scary, and I know he would agree with me.