Just when I think nothing will ever shock me again . . .
Personally I think the difference between “mental illness” and “mean as hell” is not well defined. You can justifiably define any abberant mental condition as a mental illness, and meanness would seem to qualify as well as anything else.
(That’s why I find debates over whether homosexuality is a mental illness or the like to be pointless - they are essentially debates over temrinology, with no real meaning).
I wish you’d warned me about the subject of the article so I could have avoided it. 
For legal insanity, you generally have to be able to say that the subject, because of a mental disease or defect: lacked the capacity to distinguish right from wrong, or to appreciate the nature and quality of her actions, or suffered from an irresistable impulse to commit the act – depending on the state involved.
- Rick
Jesus. Seriously, I wish I’d known what that link was.
WARNING: News story about really sickening abuse to an infant.
Right. But there’s a difference between mental illness and legal insanity (not enough of a difference, IMO, but that’s a debate for itself). So the guy who had this need to steal Marla Maples’ shoes might be legally sane, but would probably be considered to have some sort of mental illness. Or any number of other examples.
Right-o, Brickmeister, that’s what I came here to say, too.
The legal definition of “insane” is a lot different than “has a mental illness,” so just because someone is sane enough to stand trial doesn’t mean they are the picture of mental health.
I have a slight hijack . . . is an 18-month old child still considered an “infant”? NOT that it makes a difference, mind you . . .
auntie em - good question. I guess it the kid ain’t toddling yet, it’s still in infanthood.
Fuck that. What fits the crime would be to skin her and use it to for the reconstructive surgery.
Good God! I got nauseous reading that! I’m really glad the mom didn’t get a light sentence! How in the hell could any mother. . .well, you know. Not to mention that, if the father heard the child screaming from outside, the screams must have been piercing! I, personally, cannot bear to hear my child scream if she falls down and bumps her head!
auntie em textbook definition of infant that I have heard is a child who doesn’t yet walk. I would think that at 18 months, a child should be walking, unless there are medical problems.
norinew, if your definition is correct, it could be that the child wasn’t walking because of previous long-term abuse and/or neglect. Because you’re right–kids are usually walking by around that time, IIRC (not having kids of my own).
Or it could be that the child was born with some “defect”, which is why the mother . . .
ugh. I can’t even think about it.
well there are now.
This woman seriously lives on “Harm’s Way?” Seriously? Jesus, what sad irony.
Well, there are a variety of different criteria, here.
Some states define “insanity” as “being unable to tell right from wrong.”
At least one state defines “sane” as “being able to carry on one’s life and support oneself without outside assistance.”
And, of course, there are a variety of recognized and well-defined mental disorders.
I’d wanna know more about the facts before I condemned this woman as crazy or vicious. I do think the way the kid supposedly FELL into the oven is kind of suspicious, though…
As the mother of a 18 month old girl, probably not that different from the one in the article, I would seriously request that lissener (and everyone else) put big warnings before posting things like this.
I’ll be having nightmares about something happening to my beautiful baby girl now/
Uhhh…whoosh, right?
I mean, Mumsie did confess and all.
Dominic didn’t walk until he was 18 months old. It’s the tail end of the “normal” range.
Well, HELLO, even if the baby did accidentally fall out of her arms and roll into the oven… you’d think she’d notice and be the one to remove the baby FROM the oven, instead of the father! It’s the kind of thing one tends to notice…
Mental Illness if a myth foisted on the public by psychiatrists to sell brain altering drugs and charge high fees.
The woman may have had a physiological malfuntion of the brain or as suggested a jealousy of her husband and took her anger out on the child instead of her husband.
She deserves any and all of the punishments suggested particularly letting her supply the material for skin grafts!