Hat-tip to Creative Minority Report
A Catholic state legislator in Texas has introduced shocking new legislation that would effectively decriminalize infanticide for the first 12 months of a baby's life. The bill states that if a mother kills her own child within the child's first 12 months of life due to post-partum depression, the murder would be downgraded and punishable by relatively short jail stay and/or a fine.
The bill, according to the House Committee Report, would
amend the Penal Code relating to the punishment stage of a trial in which a defendant is guilty of causing the death of a child; the defendant may raise the issue of impairment under certain conditions. If the defendant proves the issue in the affirmative by a preponderance of the evidence, the offense would be punishable as a state jail felony...A state jail felony is punishable by confinement in a state jail for any term of not more than two years or less than 180 days, or, in addition to confinement, a fine not to exceed $10,000.For more click here.
1 comment:
While agreeing it appears like yet another slippery slope, postnatal depression can be an extremely severe mental illness. It's not just 'feeling a bit hormonal'. Once treated, and better, I can think of little worse than knowing you killed your own child and having to live with the fact. Perhaps the legislators are acknowledging that the threat of the electric chair etc is not a good way to deal with what are serious mental health problems.
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