Forensic psychologist Geoff McKee provided an informative explanation of the mindset of women who commit neonaticide in his opinion piece published in yesterday's Los Angeles Times.
McKee notes the difficulty of prosecuting cases like the one in Maryland where four dead fetuses were found in a woman's home. For "investigators have to prove an infant wasn't stillborn or didn't die of natural causes associated with premature delivery or accidental suffocation," he wrote.
Denial and the hiding of pregnancies are common in neonaticide cases, McKee explained, before offering an array of suggestions to prevent such deaths of infants or their abandonment.
All of this was well worth reading.
Still, it was one phrase applied by the psychologist to describe a case that he evaluated which remained with me. "'Edna,' a college freshman, was so indecisive about ending her pregnancy," wrote McKee, "that she suffocated her minutes-old baby in an act of delayed abortion." (Hattip: Best of the Web Today)
Did "Edna" reason that since she could have aborted her preborn baby anyway, she might as well kill the unwanted infant at birth?
It sure looks that way.
The deceptive mindset that rationalizes legal abortion confuses many of us -- some far more tragically than others.
(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan
Cross-posting with http://www.mothermayibeborn.com
MaryBeth, would you please email me at jillstanek@comcast.net? I can't seem to locate your email address.