Andrea Yates is back in the headlines again today...back in court....sane or insane?

Question

Honestly.....you drown 5 kids....chase a couple of them through the house & bring them back to the bathroom & drown them....then call 911 & tell them you just killed your kids....how can you do that?......I honestly think there should be more people punished for this....like her Husband, Her Mother....the people who knew she had a problem & didnt get her help....maybe the Dr that took her off the meds to begin with....I have been having a hard time with this...I am a Mother myself....

I dont know how if I would agree that she was sane or insane....I had Post Partum too....but never this severe....

What do you think?....sane or insane?....or something else?...

Answer 1

It's my opinion that anyone who commits murder, let alone your own children, is insane by virtue of that fact alone. Sane people don't kill except in defense of self or others. It's hard to fathom a mother chasing and drowing her own beloved children but in this harsh, cruel world, it's not only a reality but now explained away with a medical label! So if you commit such a heinous crime simply present a note from your doctor for an instant acquittal. You know, like getting out of gym class.

Answer 2

Whether she's sane or insane is not the question. The real problem lies within our judicial system. A person who commits a crime and then pleads temporary insanity is just manipulating the system. By any standards, an insane person will NEVER admit to being insane or crazy. This woman deliberately killed her children. Case closed. Lock up the woman and give her corporal punishment. Whether you believe in the bible or not, and since our government does (to some degree) it does state that an eye for an eye. There is no greater evil than the killing of children, let alone your own. In my opinion this woman is nothing more than a cold blood SANE killer.

Answer 3

At first I'd have to say she was insane. But as they pointed out here lately, she waited until her husband was gone, but did it right quick before her mother (or mother-in-law?) got in to help with the kids. I think they believe that makes it more sane, to be so premeditated about it.

Answer 4

She was sane enough to do it she got every one of those children in the bath tub. She was sane enough to call the police. I think she was a sick woman but you cannot blame post partum on this. I think she is something else but not sure what. How do you put in words what she did

Answer 5

She's crazier than a three-legged rocking chair on a cobblestone walking path.

(just an explanation for all you public school graduates: "crazy" is archaic for "rickety". It's a bad pun.)

And by the way: crazy people ARE capable of premeditation (this is for the moron after me). Crazy people premeditate their actions, sometimes years in advance. Look at Hitler, or the Unabomber. This being said, I think crazy people are ABSOLUTELY capable of distinguishing between right and wrong. It's just a degree of craziness that blurs that line, and makes the "insanity defense" a valid one. So, I guess what I'm saying is, there's a difference between CRAZY and REALLY CRAZY. Is Andrea Yates CRAZY or REALLY CRAZY??? Dunno. Gee. I didn't really answer your question after all, did I? I just raised another one.

Answer 6

Yeah..she is insane. How can you explain being a loving mother for all those years and then just drowning them all. From what I've seen she isn't all there.

Answer 7

The woman had five kids that she murdered, yet she had the "clarity" to call the police and her husband to tell them what she did. She's a sane woman who wanted a break, and she's using the justice system to do it.

Answer 8

that biitch is definitely insane in the membrane.Anybody that could do that to her own kids should be killed,sorry to say it but you get what you deserve

Answer 9

I think she needs paychiatric help. If she isn't insane, what would have been her motive?