Not a good law, but for other reasons. During pregnancy, and for a while thereafter, a small percentage of women can go temporarily insane due to extreme hormonal fluctuations.
And having met one severe example of this, I do not use the words “temporarily insane” lightly. She ambushed and attempted to kill her husband while in a shrieking rage, in which she was incoherent and unresponsive. When properly medicated, she was back to normal.
This is not a good reason to criminally punish someone.
To make matters worse, the number one form of mental illness is severe depression and despondency, not a good frame of mind to be in when undergoing a major physical and psychological stress.
The law should be rewritten so that women in the later stages of pregnancy, or for a few weeks thereafter, if they attempt some action like this, they should be given a physical and psychological examination. And only if they are shown to be normal should there be any criminal evaluation made about this type of behavior.
“Not a good law, but for other reasons. During pregnancy, and for a while thereafter, a small percentage of women can go temporarily insane due to extreme hormonal fluctuations...This is not a good reason to criminally punish someone.”
I’m sure you’re aware that insanity is a defense for any crime, and that we have these things called trials to sort things out.
“To make matters worse, the number one form of mental illness is severe depression and despondency”
Depression does not insanity make. The law is not, nor ought to be, so wishy-washy on the issue as people seem to think.
Actions don’t become different retroactively because of how the person who did them felt at the time.