and apple juice. The baby was 3 lbs when he died. The defense is that they were just doing what they thought was best. Should they be tried? There was no really criminal intent or neglect. That's just a sad situation.
2007-05-02 14:21:56 · 34 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Parenting
I heard it on FOX radio news.
2007-05-02 14:29:42 · update #1
Yes they should be tried. They withheld nutrients from their baby. It doesn't matter if there is no criminal intent to kill the baby, they neglected that child and deserve to be punished for it.
2007-05-02 14:25:26 · answer #1 · answered by Melissa 7 · 6⤊ 0⤋
They should not only be tried, they should be convicted and sentenced to years in prison. This is not the first time that a vegan couple has killed their child due to malnutrition. It happened in New York in 2002. Clearly these people are idiots. Would any sane person purchase a Chinchilla as a pet and not read up or learn in some way how to feed and care for it. No, that would be idiotic. What makes people think that raising a human being would be any different. These same people would most likely want to hang anyone who treated any animal with the same level of neglect. At the very least, they should be found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and criminal neglect. I'm sorry for their loss, it must be devastating but they didn't even care enough to learn about how to care for this child. Modern day Darwinism.
2007-05-04 09:52:15 · answer #2 · answered by Robert B 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, I would argue that in fact there is clear criminal intent. A full term baby usually weighs between 6 and 8 pounds. At three pounds, their baby was smaller than a package of boneless chicken breasts at the grocery store.
Now, let's take a moment and seriously consider these two people, who had a relationship in which they are both supporting each other in the starvation of this helpless infant. In order to restrict feedings to the point of death, they would have skipped well-baby visits with the pediatrician, would have limited or prevented contact with grandparents, friends, and would have even kept their baby out of the view of strangers.
If at any point, any of those people listed above had seen and held the baby, they would have noticed it was pale, listless, painfully thin, and abnormally tiny.
It's sad for the baby, but it sure as hell isn't sad for the parents. I'm certain I sound harsh to some people, but a baby is DEAD and these people didn't even have the decency to just get it over with quickly -- they let their own baby wither away over time, watched it happen, and I do not for a single second believe that they just didn't happen to notice something was wrong! It's murder, plain and simple, with criminal intent, and they should face charges and prison for their actions.
2007-05-02 15:51:35 · answer #3 · answered by yellobrix 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Based just on those facts, there absolutely *was* neglect.
I don't care if you're vegan, lacto-ovo, or the world's most passionate carnivore, if you're a parent you have a responsibility to your child to educate yourself on at least the basics of infant nutrition and caring for an infant. You also have a responsibility to get proper pediatric care for your baby, which these parents clearly did not. There are plenty of soy-based baby formulas out there, to boot. Again, I don't care if a person is vegan or lives on nothing but bloody red meat from animals they've killed with their own bare hands...only a neglectful idiot would a) think it's okay to feed an infant soy milk and b) fail to notice, or seek medical care upon noticing, the baby's falling weight and rapidly deteriorating health.
Yes, they should be tried. Not for their diet/beliefs or for wanting their child to grow up vegan, but for neglecting their infant to the point of that infant's death.
ETA They were tried, and convicted. The first conviction of its kind in GA; there have been a couple of others in the US (one in NY). If you read the articles you'll note that the allegations were not simply that they fed the baby inappropriate "food," but that they, in effect, starved the baby to death by not feeding it nearly enough. Also, there was a comment that the couple brought the infant, already dead, to the hospital *across the street from their home* -- goodness, the only way needed medical attention could have been any closer would have been if the family actually lived inside a medical office/hospital.
And to those who commented that the parents didn't "even" feed the baby anything like meat or mac and cheese....no offense to you but I sincerely and fervently hope you educate yourself a bit about infant care and infant nutrition before and if you ever have children.
2007-05-02 15:09:00 · answer #4 · answered by ljb 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes they should be tried if they didn't want to use milk based formula then they should have been breastfeeding the baby and an infant is not supposed to have juice any juice until between 6 and 8 months and th juice should be diluted. There are formulas that do not contain animal products it is just a matter of doing research and consulting with the child's pediatrician. As to what's best being a vegan does not excuse stupidity that baby starved to death the reason the child only weighed three pounds at death is because the babies body fed off of its own reserves of fat to nourish the baby until there was just nothing left to break down and nourish the babies body so the babies body just shut down.
2007-05-02 14:35:03 · answer #5 · answered by Mom2CainCaia 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes they should be b/c if she could've breastfed the baby. a mother's milk is the best source of nourishment for your baby anyway and it would've interfered with her being a vegan as the baby would have the same diet and she wouldn't have to give the baby something she was against feeding the child. it doesn't really matter if there was intent. a child needs more food when they'e still young. maybe when the child was a/b five or so. but not an infant. who doesn't notice that an infant isn't malnourished. where were the grandparents,friends,or relatives. someone should've have reported these people. so they share some blame as well.
2007-05-02 18:17:13 · answer #6 · answered by freedom fighter 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don think they should charge them with murder, but deffinately they need to get their priorities checked because if your baby is only 3 lbs, it is obvious that there is something wrong. Besides, how can you give a baby soymilk and apple juice when is a baby...I mean common sense, if you look at the baby food, there are stages and there is nothing for a newborn baby, so they have a serious problem.
I dont agree with jail but definately some kind of therapy.
Babies are very delicate and you can never be too careful when taking care of a baby.
2007-05-02 14:39:19 · answer #7 · answered by tulipanes 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well...
The baby did die in their care, so technically, yeah, they should be charged. But I don't think they should be charged with murder, maybe involuntary manslaughter. I think they were trying to uphold their beliefs and vegan culture. What I don't think they may have fully understood is that they should have given the baby the nutrients it needed to survive. Enforcing a vegan diet could have been established in toddler hood. I think they were a bit naive to think that the child would survive without the proper nutrients. I can't totally say I'd charge them with murder, they were doing the best that they knew how to do, or what they thought would work for their baby. And at the same time, they should have noticed a change in the baby's health conditions. If you see your child is getting ill, you figure out what's wrong, and you fix it. So, I think there was a small part of neglect or denial going on there too. I am sorry for their loss though. I'll be praying for their entire family. God bless you!
2007-05-02 14:33:04 · answer #8 · answered by Stink Muffin's Mama 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I agree with you that this is a sad situation. I baby was killed for no reason. Very sad indeed.
Bottom line is...these people watched their baby wither down to 3 lbs thinking they were doing the "right thing". I don't know anyone who would think 3 lbs was healthy. They should have discussed their options as vegans with their pediatrician to come up with a meal plan that everyone could live with.
I honestly feel they were negligent. I don't know about first-degree murder because it wasn't their intent to kill, but nonetheless, a life was lost...and they must pay for that.
2007-05-02 15:29:46 · answer #9 · answered by ღ†Rocker Wife†ღ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sometimes there's a fine line on whether a given situation requires what is right or what a person thinks is best. When it comes to the care of a defenseless newborn, it is most definitely a matter of what is right. The couple should be charged, especially having the general knowledge of what an infant needs but instead using what they "thought was right" as a mere excuse.
2007-05-02 14:28:38 · answer #10 · answered by Zombdra 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
It is one thing for the adult couple to be vegetarian, but way different when you are talking about a newborn. The baby has no way of making a choice in the matter. You can bet that when the baby was born his doctor said breastmilk or a fortified formula. When he didn't gain weight why didn't they take him to his doctor? They kept thinking that if they ignored theproblem it would go away? Even if they get no in prison time, they need to learn why what they did was deadly. Very very sad and needless.
2007-05-02 14:35:00 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋