I agree completely with you.
If my child ever did something like that I could never look at them again.

EVEN IF YOUR CHILD WAS SEVERELY MENTALLY ILL, YO?

AND DO YOU ACTUALLY HAVE A CHILD? OR ARE YOU SPECULATING ABOUT WHAT YOU WOULD FEEL IF YOU DID? SEE, I THINK THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW IF YOU DON'T HAVE CHILDREN, BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE SAY THAT THEIR WHOLE PRIORITIES COMPLETELY SHIFT ONCE THEY HAVE CHILDREN AND THEY FEEL FEELINGS THEY NEVER KNEW EXISTED.

HAVING SAID THAT, I KNOW FROM WORKING IN MENTAL HEALTH THAT THERE ARE FAMILIES WHO REJECT A FAMILY MEMBER WHEN THAT FAMILY MEMBER DEVELOPS A MENTAL ILLNESS. THOSE PATIENTS WERE ALWAYS MORE UNHAPPY AND MORE PRONE TO RELAPSE THAN THOSE WHOSE FAMILY SUPPORTED THEM AND CAME TO VISIT.

I pity your child then... if you would give up on them if a mental illness destroyed their life.

I never said I'd give up on them. I'd gladly pay for them to have proper medical treatment. I just wouldn't be able to look at them anymore. Which is what I said.

I'm afraid refusing to ever see your child again sounds like giving up on them to me. :P

I agree.

What about severe cases of autism them? That falls under the lines of mentally ill/mentally handicapped, doesn't it?

Saying you'd not look at them for one thing...but what if you apply that statement to the whole definition/spectrum?

I agree with what you've said. I have noticed a lot of people on bloop have had that viewpoint about gruesome crimes though. Personally, I think it's a bit too simplistic to say that. I do think it is easier to imagine these people are monsters, though, and that's why people say things like that.

I say it in the sense of "I want them to feel the pain they inflicted on that victim" give them a taste of their own medicine ya know?

Lord knows it's not going to happen that way.

ODDLY, IF IT IS A CASE OF TEMPORARY INSANITY, THE MENTAL SUFFERING THEY WILL ENDURE IS FAR MORE THAN ANY PUNISHMENT THAT COULD BE INFLICTED ON THEM. SERIOUSLY, YO, YOU SHOULD WORK IN MENTAL HEALTH AND YOU WILL SEE IT IS NOT AS SIMPLE AS GOOD PERSON VERSUS EVIL PERSON.

Well said Estella.

WHY, THANK YOU, YO! ;D

It's hard for me to read about the mentality of "hurt them as they hurt others" when they're mentally ill (my major is psychology). I mean yeah I'm totally sickened by what they did, but there's usually a reason for WHAT they did, insanity wise. You pretty much said what I wanted to say. ^___^

YES, YO - AND WHEN YOU WORK WITH MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE, YOU TOTALLY REALISE THEY ARE REALLY ILL - JUST IN A DIFFERENT WAY FROM BEING ILL WITH, SAY, CANCER (ALTHOUGH CANCER CAN ALSO GO TO THE BRAIN AND THEN THE TWO ARE SIMILAR). LIKE, THEIR BRAIN JUST ISN'T FUNCTIONING, AND IT OFTEN CAUSES THEM A LOT OF CONFUSION AND DISTRESS. SAME IF YOU WORK WITH PEOPLE WITH HEAD INJURIES - AND GOSH, YO, THAT IS SOMETHING THAT IS TOTALLY CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE, REGARDLESS OF ANY GENETIC PREDISPOSITION. A PERFECTLY INTELLIGENT, COURTEOUS PILLAR OF SOCIETY CAN HAVE A CAR ACCIDENT AND BE CHANGED INTO SOMEONE WHO IS AGGRESSIVE, UNINHIBITED, NO UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT IS APPROPRIATE OR RIGHT, AND VERY VERY DISTURBED.

TO JUST DISMISS SUCH PEOPLE AS EVIL MAKES NO SENSE - THE BABIES PEOPLE WANT TO PROTECT WILL GROW UP INTO ADULTS THEMSELVES AND THEN THEY MAY HAVE A HEAD INJURY OR A MENTAL ILLNESS. DOES THEIR LIFE THEN BECOME WORTHLESS JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE NO LONGER A BABY AND THEY ARE NOW ILL? THIS MAKES NO SENSE TO ME, YO. WHAT IS THE POINT OF PROTECTING BABIES IF ONE DOESN'T WANT TO CONTINUE TO HELP AND PROTECT THEM AS ADULTS, WHEN THEY BECOME ILL? (RHETORICAL QUESTIONS THROWN OUT AT EVERYONE IN GENERAL, YO!)

Exactly. I wondered the same thing when the VT shootings happened, when the shootings in Illinois happened; that the guys who did this were sick and b/c they killed themselves, we'll never know the real truth. Yeah there are ppl out there who are genuinely evil but in cases like this woman I don't think this is the case.

OUT OF CURIOSITY, DO YOU HAVE MENTAL HOMES FOR CRIMINALLY INSANE PEOPLE IN AMERICA? WE DO HERE IN THE UK. IF YOU HAVE READ THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN (TRUE STORY OF HOW THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY CAME INTO BEING) THE 'MADMAN' (WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR FINDING THE FIRST USAGES OF MANY WORDS) WAS IN BROADMOOR, WHICH IS WHERE CRIMINALLY INSANE PEOPLE ARE LOCKED UP, BUT AS A MENTAL INSTITUTION RATHER THAN A PRISON.

Yeah there's mental institutions for the criminally insane. I'm not quite sure if they're separate from normal prisons here but I'm sure that they are.

There are sections of prisions for mentally ill people but not seperate facilities in most cases. It all depends on the crime

'A PERFECTLY INTELLIGENT, COURTEOUS PILLAR OF SOCIETY CAN HAVE A CAR ACCIDENT AND BE CHANGED INTO SOMEONE WHO IS AGGRESSIVE, UNINHIBITED, NO UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT IS APPROPRIATE OR RIGHT, AND VERY VERY DISTURBED.'

Like Phineas Gage!

if you would give your child up because you couldnt look him/her the same way again because of a mental illness you are the one who's mentally ill. a mothers love is uncondistional. I should know i am a mom and a damn proud one. i wouldnt have cared if my baby girl came out mentally retarded with 2 toes and no hands i would have devoted my life to taking care of her and making sure she was a happy as any other child should be. to give up a child because of an illness is weak minded. what would you think if your mom put you in a mental insitute and never saw you? you'd think you wern't love and that would drive you to be over the top insane.

Huh? I never said I would give up my child if they were mentally ill.... o___O Did you reply to the wrong person?

yea... it was for this jessica chick i think. o.o not for you.

Ok I was going to say, "when did I say that?!?!??" XD

How Christian of you. :P

Gosh, that seems a little heartless. I hope you never have the misfortune of experiencing mental illness. That woman will punish herself for the rest of her life for this but she was clearly extremely unwell.

Personally I think it's a horrid horrid thing that's happened and utterly tragic, but it seems highly likely from the story that the poor woman was psychotic. And postnatal depression has stolen her child from her.

I can't imagine being this woman. Not only has she suffered from an extreme mental illness, but when she DOES get on medication and she DOES get back to her "normal" self, she's going to realize what she'd done when she didn't know she was doing it. It will KILL her.