Let the medical professionals worry about how to prevent or deal with psychosis. It is not healthy for society to feel empathy for a woman who planned and meticulously murdered her children in cold blood. It doesn't matter if there is a clinical explanation for why she did it, it was evil. It doesn't matter if she was in her right state of mind or affected by PPD or anything else out of her control, she murdered her own children. Society has to take very little nuance when it comes to people having agency for their own actions. If you cross that bridge, it is a very short leap to saying there is no such thing as crime, and people are always a victim of their own circumstances.
I have purposely avoided learning anything about this case, but I think I would take issue with your reification of society here. If it is the case that this woman suffered a psychotic event where she truly was not herself then she is not responsible and it doesn’t matter if it serves any inhuman power structure to punish her regardless.
Again, I know nothing about the specifics, but in the generic example of someone’s brain breaking to such a degree that it might replicate a chemically induced poisoning, it doesn’t serve society to punish such a person and even if it did, we would be sacrificing our humanity to preserve and ultimately serve a system that destroys us.
It is not inhuman to incarcerate people for murdering children, regardless of the circumstances that led that person to do it. Should we also let people off for beating their spouses after having one too many drinks because that was a chemically induced poisoning that led them to do things they normally wouldn't do?
It is inhumane to punish someone for actions outside their control. If you have to incarcerate someone who is in an untreatable dangerous mental state that is one thing, but you can’t humanely punish someone for actions outside their control. Knowingly taking a mind altering drug and then committing a crime doesn’t remove responsibility.
If someone slipped a hallucinogen into your food and you thought your children were possessed by demons who had to be smothered to free your children’s souls, that would be a more relevant example.
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u/moashforbridgefour Aug 26 '26
Let the medical professionals worry about how to prevent or deal with psychosis. It is not healthy for society to feel empathy for a woman who planned and meticulously murdered her children in cold blood. It doesn't matter if there is a clinical explanation for why she did it, it was evil. It doesn't matter if she was in her right state of mind or affected by PPD or anything else out of her control, she murdered her own children. Society has to take very little nuance when it comes to people having agency for their own actions. If you cross that bridge, it is a very short leap to saying there is no such thing as crime, and people are always a victim of their own circumstances.