Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Motherhood is a blessing...
...that not all people deserve. I was shocked by some news items in the past few days and just thought I'd share. They definitely say something about society these days, but are they problems we can "fix" or is it just part of a larger issue?
1.Woman Says She Didn't Mean to Hurl Baby
Associated Press, October 10
A 27-year-old mother of five used her 4-week-old baby (head-first) to beat her boyfriend while drunk. Reports say that she held the baby by the midsection (others say it was the legs) and swung the baby's head, hitting her boyfriend several times. The child is still hospitalized with a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain. Needless to say, the other children were also taken from the home for protection.
2. "Whale Rider" star Keisha Castle-Hughes is expecting her first child at 16.
Associated Press, October 6
What has this world come to when teen actresses (correction: unheard of teen actresses) can publicly flaunt their pregnancies with minimal judgement passed? I'm not saying that she should be hidden away, but to brag about it? The father is her 19-year-old boyfriend of 3 years. Talk about growing up too fast. Ironically, she plays Mary, young mother of Jesus, in an upcoming movie.
3. Woman Who Killed Kids Form Bonds
Associated Press, October 8
I don't know why some reports stress "Texas moms" (J-school teaches you not to title people to save word count), but this is an odd story. Apparently Andrea Yates (the drowner of her 5 children) and Dena Schlosser (who severed her baby's arms with a kitchen knife - ugh) are now roommates in a mental unit at the North Texas State Hospital. Both were found not guilty by reason of insanity. And they have formed a bond. Both cases are eerily similar: the mothers were both members of fringe religious sects and both thought they were doing a religious duty by taking their childrens' lives.
4. Mother tries to 'unadopt' boy
Fox News, October 9
A woman is trying to unadopt a 15-year-old boy after he molested two younger children. The 57-year-old woman says she is just now finding out about the boy's troubled past: five foster homes since he was a year old, physical abuse, and possibly psychotic problems. Although Virginia has laws for full disclosure to adoptive parents, the woman says all she was told was that he was "hyperactive." Police told her after the molestation cases that if he remained in the house she could no longer take in any other foster children or even have her grandchildren over because of the threat he posed, so she is choosing to dissolve the adoption.
5. A permanent birthday reminder for mom
Independent Online, October 9
A 49-year-old mother of five now doesn't forget her children's birthdays because she just had them tattooed on her arm. Um...ok.
6. Mother to be charged for allegedly killing children
Fiji Village, October 10
Just proof that it isn't just the western culture.
7. Mother axed son's leg
Melbourne Herald Sun, October 10
A 22-year-old mother in a reported schizophrenic attack nearly severinng her 21-month-old son's right leg. The leg was reattached surgically, but the mother had apparently stopped taking her medication a month ago. Like the cases above, she thought it was what God wanted her to do. No wonder people think God-lovers are crazy (note: they are not).
Speaking of schizophrenia, however, a group of mental health experts have requested that the word be removed from diagnoses/med-speak. They argue that it is not a single disorder, but just a lumping of several different symptoms, any of which could be signs of other disorders, and the term is stigmatizing to the patient. They think the catch-all phrase should be changed to dopamine dysregulation disorder.
Now, question: haven't many other diagnoses turned into "stigmatizing" names? Do we just keep changing the diagnoses everytime the connotation becomes negative? There have been a number of diagnoses that have been worked into regular speak without a hint of stigmatism. Although I'm not a mental health expert and I think sometimes people are diagnosed unnecessarily, there are people out there, normal people, living through it and they can't do a thing about it. Why should we stigmatize them and not someone with Down's syndrome? (Not that I think they should be stigmatized - I mean the opposite) How are they that different? Do we qualify some diseases as more preventable than others? I certainly don't think a schizophrenic chose to be that way, any more than a person with a chromosomal deformity chose to be that way. True, many medical problems stem from lifestyle choices, but these do not.
Lessons learned today: Go hug your mother if she's never killed a child or hurled one at her boyfriend, and remember people are people are people.
1.Woman Says She Didn't Mean to Hurl Baby
Associated Press, October 10
A 27-year-old mother of five used her 4-week-old baby (head-first) to beat her boyfriend while drunk. Reports say that she held the baby by the midsection (others say it was the legs) and swung the baby's head, hitting her boyfriend several times. The child is still hospitalized with a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain. Needless to say, the other children were also taken from the home for protection.
2. "Whale Rider" star Keisha Castle-Hughes is expecting her first child at 16.
Associated Press, October 6
What has this world come to when teen actresses (correction: unheard of teen actresses) can publicly flaunt their pregnancies with minimal judgement passed? I'm not saying that she should be hidden away, but to brag about it? The father is her 19-year-old boyfriend of 3 years. Talk about growing up too fast. Ironically, she plays Mary, young mother of Jesus, in an upcoming movie.
3. Woman Who Killed Kids Form Bonds
Associated Press, October 8
I don't know why some reports stress "Texas moms" (J-school teaches you not to title people to save word count), but this is an odd story. Apparently Andrea Yates (the drowner of her 5 children) and Dena Schlosser (who severed her baby's arms with a kitchen knife - ugh) are now roommates in a mental unit at the North Texas State Hospital. Both were found not guilty by reason of insanity. And they have formed a bond. Both cases are eerily similar: the mothers were both members of fringe religious sects and both thought they were doing a religious duty by taking their childrens' lives.
4. Mother tries to 'unadopt' boy
Fox News, October 9
A woman is trying to unadopt a 15-year-old boy after he molested two younger children. The 57-year-old woman says she is just now finding out about the boy's troubled past: five foster homes since he was a year old, physical abuse, and possibly psychotic problems. Although Virginia has laws for full disclosure to adoptive parents, the woman says all she was told was that he was "hyperactive." Police told her after the molestation cases that if he remained in the house she could no longer take in any other foster children or even have her grandchildren over because of the threat he posed, so she is choosing to dissolve the adoption.
5. A permanent birthday reminder for mom
Independent Online, October 9
A 49-year-old mother of five now doesn't forget her children's birthdays because she just had them tattooed on her arm. Um...ok.
6. Mother to be charged for allegedly killing children
Fiji Village, October 10
Just proof that it isn't just the western culture.
7. Mother axed son's leg
Melbourne Herald Sun, October 10
A 22-year-old mother in a reported schizophrenic attack nearly severinng her 21-month-old son's right leg. The leg was reattached surgically, but the mother had apparently stopped taking her medication a month ago. Like the cases above, she thought it was what God wanted her to do. No wonder people think God-lovers are crazy (note: they are not).
Speaking of schizophrenia, however, a group of mental health experts have requested that the word be removed from diagnoses/med-speak. They argue that it is not a single disorder, but just a lumping of several different symptoms, any of which could be signs of other disorders, and the term is stigmatizing to the patient. They think the catch-all phrase should be changed to dopamine dysregulation disorder.
Now, question: haven't many other diagnoses turned into "stigmatizing" names? Do we just keep changing the diagnoses everytime the connotation becomes negative? There have been a number of diagnoses that have been worked into regular speak without a hint of stigmatism. Although I'm not a mental health expert and I think sometimes people are diagnosed unnecessarily, there are people out there, normal people, living through it and they can't do a thing about it. Why should we stigmatize them and not someone with Down's syndrome? (Not that I think they should be stigmatized - I mean the opposite) How are they that different? Do we qualify some diseases as more preventable than others? I certainly don't think a schizophrenic chose to be that way, any more than a person with a chromosomal deformity chose to be that way. True, many medical problems stem from lifestyle choices, but these do not.
Lessons learned today: Go hug your mother if she's never killed a child or hurled one at her boyfriend, and remember people are people are people.
# posted by ange : 9:49 AM
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