SC mom faces homicide charges for using coke

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phr

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Police: S.C. mom who used cocaine charged in newborn's death
The AP

COLUMBIA, S.C. --
A woman accused of using cocaine while she was pregnant has been charged with homicide by child abuse after her newborn's death was blamed on exposure to the drug, authorities said.

Lorraine D. Patrick, 28, was nearly six months pregnant when she gave birth to a premature baby girl Sept. 29, authorities said. The baby died four days later.

Patrick and the baby tested positive for cocaine when she gave birth at Palmetto Health Richland hospital, Lexington Sheriff James Metts said.

Patrick becomes one of more than 70 women since 1989 prosecuted statewide on charges they used drugs while pregnant, according to the National Advocates for Pregnant Women.

Some groups, like the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, say pregnant women who test positive for drugs should get treatment, not be prosecuted.

"It makes us feel better because we're so mad at these women," Dr. Dana Stone said of the prosecutions. Stone is Oklahoma chairwoman for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The state Supreme Court has ruled a fetus able to survive outside the womb is a person under state child-abuse and neglect laws.

An Horry County woman, Regina McKnight, was convicted of homicide by child abuse under the law several years ago for using cocaine during her pregnancy and was sentenced to 12 years.

The state Supreme Court upheld her conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear her case.

McKnight is serving her sentence at Leath Correctional Institution.
Information from: The State, http://www.thestate.com

Link!
 
The state Supreme Court has ruled a fetus able to survive outside the womb is a person under state child-abuse and neglect laws.
Click to expand...

Well apparently the fetus wasn't able to survive outside the womb, huh? Case closed. I'd be an awesome lawyer.
 
IMO, she should be charged for using while pregnant. As for homicide charges, those should only be brought up if it is proven that the baby died due to her cocaine use.
 
She shouldn't have been using while she was preggers, but homicide is a bit much. Send her to rehab, get her cleaned up, and let her sit with the guilt of killing her child, that should be enough...
 
Hypothetical: Let's say the baby was born prematurely, at 6 months, due to her cocaine use. Now, what if the baby died because it was born so prematurely?

Now, if this could all be proven without a reasonable doubt, she should be charged for homocide/manslaughter, imo.
 
Babies are born premature and die all the time. It's common. Should we charge every woman who can't manage to carry a pregnancy to term? How about women who are mentally ill who for whatever reason do not complete their pregnancy, they should be punished too right?
 
^No, I don't think we should.

but...

Let's say the baby was born prematurely, at 6 months, due to her cocaine use. Now, what if the baby died because it was born so prematurely?
Click to expand...

It might be a stretch, but I was relying on the transitive property for that hypothetical.
 
Some groups, like the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, say pregnant women who test positive for drugs should get treatment, not be prosecuted.

"It makes us feel better because we're so mad at these women," Dr. Dana Stone said of the prosecutions. Stone is Oklahoma chairwoman for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Click to expand...
shouldnt you be spending your money and time on, like, doing research and curing vagina diseases or something?
 
So if some lady is preggers, trips and falls and kills the baby inside, does she get charged for murder/manslaughter?
 
I think from the moment that you decide you are going to carry a pregnancy to term, your body becomes not just your own, but shared with the baby. Anything you do that can be clearly demonstrated to have harmed the baby or led to its death (AFTER deciding to carry it to term and AFTER it develops far enough along to be a child, rather than a bunch of cells) you should be responsible for just as though you had done it to your born child.

I'm definitely pro-choice, but I am also very against late-term abortions, and I see this in exactly the same way I see late-term abortions. If you decide to have a kid, and then you fuck it up by using drugs during the pregnancy, the risk of various defects increase astronomically, in addition to the high probability of the child being born addicted to whatever you're using (assuming its something addictive). Even if no long-term damage is done, putting a newborn baby through withdrawals for a highly addictive drug is abuse in itself.

Homicide might be a bit much, but using drugs after deciding to finish a pregnancy is ABSOLUTELY child abuse and/or neglect.
 
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