Shadowscope

… she may be insane… but the verdict is even MORE insane…

There are supposedly something like 20 million people in the US alone that are Manic-Depressive, or so-called “bipolar”. Does that mean it’s ok for me to kill my kids and maybe spend a couple of years in the fucking nut house just because I got a little depressed?

Characterizing Andrea Yates, or other mentally ill people as “a little depressed” is like saying that a brain tumor is “a little headache,” and then blaming those afflicted for missing work because of it.
By the way, if a bipolar person was going to kill their children, they would do it when they are manic, and not depressed.
My father is bipolar. Before he was diagnosed he had periodic psychotic breaks with reality. That meant that he NO RATIONAL concept faculties. Once he was on medication he ceased to have these episodes, and is now as sane as any of us.
Mental illness is often as physical as any other disease. Welcome to the 21st Century.
Fortunately for my family, my mother did not allow us kids to be left in my father’s care when he was having these episodes. She was afraid of what might happen, and rightly so he was insane.
If we are going to blame anyone for the death of the Yeats children, why not start with the adults in the situation who HAD the full use of their rational minds. Andrea’s husband, family, and church knew that she had a problem, particularly with postpartum depression.
That is why her doctor recommended that she not have children again.
But she go pregnant again, and despite the fact that she was clearly ill, her husband went to back to work leaving her to take care of the kids. Her community did nothing to help those children.
Is it okay for someone who is mentally ill to kill their kids? NO. But considering that the insane have no rational concept of what is good, bad, or otherwise, we can’t hold them responsible.
To do so is nothing more than cruelty. And it is cruelty to absolve ourselves (the sane) of the responsibility when we failed to protect others from those who are insane.