{"id":705,"date":"2004-03-17T20:18:09","date_gmt":"2004-03-18T04:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2004\/03\/17\/three-good-comments-on-the-rowland-case\/"},"modified":"2004-03-17T20:18:09","modified_gmt":"2004-03-18T04:18:09","slug":"three-good-comments-on-the-rowland-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=705","title":{"rendered":"Three good comments on the Rowland case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several days ago, I blogged about Melissa Ann Rowland, a woman charged with murder for refusing to have a c-section<\/a>. Here’s a few more links about Melissa Rowland and her arrest.<\/p>\n

First, for those who are interested, The Salt Lake Tribune <\/i>article <\/a>has a lot more background on Melissa Rowland’s life and mental state. (Via Annatopia <\/a>and Body and Soul<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Body and Soul’s take seems exactly right to me:<\/p>\n

Suddenly the narrative shifts a bit. A frightened, mentally ill, pregnant woman, living on Social Security disability benefits, facing eviction, the father of her children gone, went from hospital to hospital looking for help, and no one knew what to do for her or how to reach her. And because of that, she has been in jail for nearly two months and faces murder charges:<\/p>\n

But Kent Morgan, deputy Salt Lake County prosecutor and a spokesman for District Attorney David Yocom, said Rowland’s crime stems from the depraved indifference and utter callousness she showed toward her unborn twins.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is indeed depraved indifference and utter callousness at the heart of this story, but it’s not Melissa Rowland’s.<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the whole thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Then, a post from Annatopia<\/a>, where letters are not capitalized:<\/p>\n

where was the social safety net that is supposed to catch people like melissa and her children? i did some googling, and i discovered that in 1998 utah was #48 in social spending per capita. i tried looking for more recent data, but all i could find was a laundry list of services that have been cut this year. basically, utah doesn’t spend diddly on social services compared to the rest of our states. so with that in mind, i’m not suprised that melissa rowland fell through the cracks of an underfunded system.[…]<\/p>\n

this is completely a what if situation, but here goes. what if our health care system could have provided melissa with weekly visits from a midwife during her pregnancy? what if melissa could have enrolled in government funded drug rehab without the fear of going to jail or losing her children? what if that rehab stint could have been followed up by in-home visits by a therapist or case worker? what if melissa had access to an optional, free shot of depo provera every three months as part of a nationwide family planning program?<\/p><\/div>\n

Read (as, AATS, they say) the whole thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

In comments, “Alas” reader Z*lda pointed me to this FindLaw commentary by Sherry Colb<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In short, the arguments against the homicide prosecution of Melissa Ann Rowland for failure to have a C-section are substantial and ultimately decisive.<\/p>\n

To undergo surgery to help another person – even one’s own child – is a decision currently left up to the individual in our society. Moral obligations to risk life and limb for one’s children are not enforced by the criminal law.<\/p>\n

To select a subgroup – pregnant women – to face mandatory surgery is thus patently unfair. And in addition to embracing a double-standard, the advocate of forced C-sections must confront the wealth of data suggesting that the those who decide a C-section is necessary for a child’s wellbeing are consistently making errors that risk the lives and wellbeing of women and their babies.<\/p>\n

If we wish to become a nation of good Samaritans, a step that this country does not appear poised to take at this time, we must make sure that the obligations of such a choice rest equally upon all of us. Otherwise, we risk subjugating a minority, and we systematically fail to assess the real-life costs and benefits of what we do.<\/p>\n

In the interests of justice, the prosecution of Ms. Rowland should be dropped or dismissed.<\/p><\/div>\n

Again, the whole thing<\/a>, read the.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: And a fourth comment – how did I miss this one, from Echidne<\/a>?<\/p>\n

A 30-year old man, one John Smith, had a son with incurable leukemia. Medical tests determined that the only suitable bone marrow donor for this child was his father. John Smith refused to donate any of his marrow; he said that he was scared of the medical procedure that would have been used. So not very fatherly, our John. But this is unsurprising; it was known that he had suffered from mental health problems most of his life, he took recreational drugs and otherwise acted in ways that proper people frown on. As a result of John’s refusal, his son died. Should we now accuse him of murder?<\/p>\n

Now change the sex of the person in question, make her name Melissa Ann Rowland, and her age 28 years, and change the circumstances into one where the mother refused a Caesarian section that might have saved her son’s life. The son died here, too. Should we accuse her of murder?<\/p><\/div>\n

The whole thing.<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several days ago, I blogged about Melissa Ann Rowland, a woman charged with murder for refusing to have a c-section. Here’s a few more links about Melissa Rowland and her arrest. First, for those who are interested, The Salt Lake … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion-reproductive-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}