Indiana is at it again: First woman in US sentenced for killing a fetus

[RavenSky]

"Purvi Patel's conviction amounts to punishment for having a miscarriage and then seeking medical care, something that no woman should worry would lead to jail time," said Deepa Iyer, Activist-in-Residence at the University of Maryland's Asian American Studies Program and former director of South Asian Americans Leading Together.

Despite Patel's claim that she gave birth to a stillborn child, prosecutors argued that Patel gave birth to a live fetus and charged her with child neglect. Prosecutors also claimed that Patel ordered abortion-inducing drugs online and tried to terminate her pregnancy, but a toxicology report failed to find evidence of any drugs in her system.

Patel is the first woman to be sentenced under Indiana's feticide laws but she isn't the first woman to be charged. In 2011, Bei Bei Shuai, a Chinese American-woman, was held in prison for a year before feticide charges against her were dropped as part of a plea deal. Shuai was reportedly suffering from depression and tried to commit suicide while pregnant. She survived, but the fetus did not.

"Instead of receiving the medical support and counseling [Shuai] so desperately needed, the state charged her with murder and attempted feticide," said Iyer.

http://www.wncn.com/story/28664509/first-woman-in-us-sentenced-for-killing-a-fetus

Indiana <-----> Iran Basically the same when it comes to women's right and gay rights

 

[RavenSky]

more information: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_...thologist_use_the_discredited_lung_float.html

The two charges against Patel—feticide and felony child neglect—appeared to contradict each another: If Patel killed the fetus with pills while it was still in the womb, that would suggest there was nothing she could do to save it once it was born. Nevertheless, a jury found Patel guilty of both crimes, meaning she could be facing up to 70 years in prison.

There’s another reason Patel’s case deserves scrutiny. It has to do with how the prosecution went about establishing the fetus’s condition upon birth. At the center of its presentation was a method that involved removing the fetus’s lungs and placing them in a container of liquid in order to see if they would float. The theory behind the method, which was developed during the 17th century but has been questioned by modern medical experts, holds that if a lung does float, it means the baby drew at least one breath of air before expiring, and that if it sinks, the fetus was already dead by the time it left the womb.

“It’s an absolutely discredited test,” said Gregory Davis, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Kentucky. “It boggles my mind that in the 21st century … this test is still being relied upon to determine whether a baby is born alive or dead.”

Davis is not the only forensic pathologist who believes the float test is unreliable. The most recent edition of Knight’s Forensic Pathology, a widely used textbook, says “there are too many recorded instances when control tests have shown that stillborn lungs may float and the lungs from undoubtedly live-born infants have sunk, to allow it to be used in testimony in a criminal trial.” The authors of another textbook, Essentials of Forensic Medicine, called the test “pointless” in 1984.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So she killed the fetus with drugs that weren't protected and then they compared her weight to that of a duck to see if she was a witch.

Great!

I hope she did kill the fetus, because the alternative would be a woman going through the trauma of delivering a stillborn baby... and then going to prison.

 

[RavenSky]

Prosecutors based their claim that she killed the fetus with drugs on a text she sent a friend talking about trying to obtain abortion pills. There was no evidence she actually ordered the drugs, obtained the drugs or took the drugs.

 

[Perspicuo]

The Medieval Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition, the Roman Inquisition, and now the American Inquisition.

 

[PyramidHead]

Why is feticide even a serious offense when done by the mother? I can see if a woman wants to have the baby and someone injures her to intentionally kill the fetus, because that violates the wishes of the mother and forces her to go through the whole process over again to conceive, carry, and deliver another child. But in this case, nobody's wishes were actually violated, so I'm having trouble understanding why it's something that should be legally punished. Other than the obvious medieval superstition thing, anyway.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

They where talking about this at a meeting I was in this morning.

One guy in the meeting summed it up best.

"This some bullshit"

 

[Uwe]

The Medieval Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition, the Roman Inquisition, and now the American Inquisition.

"Hoosier inquisition." Those fuckers are out on their own.

 

[dismal]

Um, I couldn't help but notice this in the article:

prosecutors argued that Patel gave birth to a live fetus and charged her with child neglect.

Gave birth to a live fetus?

 

[bilby]

Um, I couldn't help but notice this in the article:

prosecutors argued that Patel gave birth to a live fetus and charged her with child neglect.

Gave birth to a live fetus?

You know; like when an arsonist is charged with setting fire to some unburned cinders.

Or something.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Well, it's mostly about punishing the woman, not justice, so such details matter little in the end.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

This is so stupid that I have no comment that hasn't already been made. Usually I would look to play a Lil devil's advocate... But i got nothing.

I do have one question however... Why do they call themselves hoosiers?

 

[bilby]

This is so stupid that I have no comment that hasn't already been made. Usually I would look to play a Lil devil's advocate... But i got nothing.

I do have one question however... Why do they call themselves hoosiers?

Why shouldn't they? I don't think they are lying about coming from Indiana.

 

[maxparrish]

The Medieval Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition, the Roman Inquisition, and now the American Inquisition.

Well, at least she didn't refuse to make a cupcake for gays...that could have been REAL serious.

 

[Trausti]

I'll be the contrarian. The underlying questioned seemed to be whether the infant was born alive. This is from article preceding the verdict:

Pathologist Dr. Joseph Prahlow determined the baby's death was due to homicide.

Dr. Prahlow testified he conducted a flotation test on both the lungs and the liver. The lungs floated and the liver sank.

He testified there would not be air in the lungs if the baby was stillborn.

The fact that the liver sank meant the baby did not decompose, according to Dr. Prahlow.

He also testified the baby was approximately 25 weeks old.

http://www.abc57.com/story/27966634/doctor-testifies-patels-baby-took-a-breath

24 weeks is the threshold of viability. So unless this birth occurred in a hospital, and the newborn promptly given surfanctant, the risk of mortality was already very high. But the state position that a viable neonate, premature or not, is entitled to the same protections against criminal homicide as everyone else ought not to be controversial. I imagine what doomed the defendant in was her clear intent to commit the self-abortion coupled with her obvious callousness to the death of her child.

In addition to the autopsy results, jurors saw 20 pages of text messages between Patel and her best friend Felicia Turnbo.

Turnbo took the stand on Wednesday to testify about the text messages about Planned Parenthood, the pregnancy and an affair.

When asked about a text Patel sent that read, “I researched it a good bit before I ordered it,” Turbo said Patel was referring to the abortion pills.

Another text Patel allegedly sent read, “Just lost the baby.”

Minutes later she allegedly sent another text that read, “Cleaned up the bathroom floor and about to go to Moe's.”

Turnbo testified she was under the impression Patel was only two months pregnant.

Turnbo also testified that Patel had a year-long secret romantic relationship with a man who was married and going through a divorce.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I'll be the contrarian. The underlying questioned seemed to be whether the infant was born alive. This is from article preceding the verdict:

But this is quack science.

 

[Juma]

The Medieval Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition, the Roman Inquisition, and now the American Inquisition.

Well, at least she didn't refuse to make a cupcake for gays...that could have been REAL serious.

? So you would be ok with "whites only" signs??

 

[PyramidHead]

But the state position that a viable neonate, premature or not, is entitled to the same protections against criminal homicide as everyone else ought not to be controversial.

Why on earth not? That seems to me the most controversial aspect of it.