WARNING - *very distressing* - Why are these people allowed to keep having children?

[Jakois]

She has an intellectual impairment, so managing contraception is likely to be very difficult for her. I doubt she planned to get pregnant again.

This whole story is so tragic and sad. Not only due to the loss of a precious baby... But I also can't imagine how anxious and confused she must have been - giving birth alone in the bathroom... Feeling so anxious about her mother finding out. Her mental age could be quite young (far younger than 18). Given the problem of sexual abuse of young people with II, I wonder if this is why she concealed the pregnancy. Just a hypothesis, but possible.

As pointed out by previous posters, her carers should have helped her find an appropriate contraception for her. And maybe they tried to. Education around family planing is so important for young people with a disability... For these very reasons.

Just so sad...

This is an excellent post.

[Caviar]

Having read up further on the case, the Court has found that the girl in question was deemed sane (her defence was apparently that she was not of sound mind at the time of the offence) and that her intellectual disability is "very slight" having been found to be intelligent enough to partially complete a Cert III Community Services prior to her arrest. Her level of intelligence was deemed to have been applicable for her age.

Yes, this girl was working with children and had been for some time.

I'm sorry but I have no sympathy. I am not going to be a do-gooder and say oh it's sad and she needs help and sterilisation is wrong. I would love to be in a utopian world where nothing like this happened and that we could all live in harmony blah blah blah...

True, sterilisation won't bring those babies back but it'll make damn sure that she won't be able to have any more.

And yes, when you kill your own child or even neglect them you should have the right to have a child taken away.

I note that so many immediately demand rights and yet there's not even a whisper about responsibilities. Plenty of mothers give birth anxious and alone. So what? They don't kill their children. They woman up and get the job done. After all, didn't you?

Responsibility - the obligation we have to ensure that something is done properly or someone is held safely. This girl knew what she was doing and hid it. To blame her mother is sooooo easy...again, more buck passing. Let's lay it on the line right here: fact is this woman murdered her child. She gave birth, wrapped him up and walked away.

That child died on his own and in terror on someone's driveway.

This knowledge makes me both sad and very angry. How dare she do this. This child didn't belong to her. This child was entrusted into her care.


And yet people are more concerned about her than the child. So after they lock her up and throw away the key, I still advocate sterilisation. I don't want people like her in my community.

[Benji]

I haven't seen anybody say they are more concerned about the perpetrators than the victims. I haven't even seen anybody hint at this. Just that things aren't always black and white and sometimes it's better to look at the reasons why these awful things happen than to dish out severe punishments without giving it a second thought. I truly believe that working out why people do these awful things is a much better way of working out how to prevent it, rather than waiting until after the fact and dishing out harsh punishments.

[beebs]

Oh I'm sorry, I must of missed all those posts where people are more concerned about her than the baby. Could you please point out where those are. I would love to read them.

And yet people are more concerned about her than the child. So after they lock her up and throw away the key, I still advocate sterilisation. I don't want people like her in my community.

[Ffrenchknickers]

Oh I'm sorry, I must of missed all those posts where people are more concerned about her than the baby. Could you please point out where those are. I would love to read them.

Argh!!! I feel the same!!!! Why is it when people can see beyond the actions if a person does it automatically mean that they don't care about the innocent!??? This happens in all these kind of threads. Drives me bonkers it does. I would use all kind of emoticons but I'm on my phone,

[beebs]

Yup - same as yesterday and it will be the same as tomorrow. You questions the reasons or motive and all of a sudden you are a baby hating murderer loving person. I personally find it a little strange, are we all reading the same posts?

Argh!!! I feel the same!!!! Why is it when people can see beyond the actions if a person does it automatically mean that they don't care about the innocent!??? This happens in all these kind of threads. Drives me bonkers it does. I would use all kind of emoticons but I'm on my phone,

[Ffrenchknickers]

Makes me want to throw myself over a cliff.

[Ffrenchknickers]

Ok maybe that was a little melodramatic

[share a book]

I simply had no opinion formed and was not about to condemn someone based on little information. It still worries me that she was so scared of her mother that she was willing to do that to her baby. That is not to say there should be no consequence, just that if we don't find the reason for these things happening how can we, as a community, take steps to make sure it doesn't keep happening?

[Annabella]

Obviously there are issues at play here, any normal functioning member of society wouldn't see leaving a baby on the neighbours driveway as a good option. That doesn't mean she is not responsible for her actions, or that I don't feel completely saddened for the baby. It means I can see that there are so many factors at play in this scenario, and actually believe that support and education will get this woman a lot further in life than blind judgment!