Baby killed by 'lethal breast milk'

♥♪Megan♫♥ - posted on 08/08/2011

Gonna find that lag, kill it dead and make a rug outta it

♥♪Megan♫♥ - posted on 08/08/2011

She sounds as bright as the woman they had on the news down in Washington last week. This lady was lucky her 5 week old didn't die because she was only feeding him water or watered down formula.

Screw Casey Anthony, this is obviously one of the worst moms on the planet. I mean I breast feed and I don't even get a sip of beer and freaked out over going to have communion wine. I know it's not exactly kosher and a tad encroaching (UG looks like I can't spell either) but I vote we spay her dumb ass.

Kellie - posted on 08/08/2011

Your article said that an Officer can testify she was given leaflets explaining that meth passes through in the milk, so unless she's illerate (oh god my spelling! so sorry!) she knew. I'm hoping the hospital or whoever gave her the leaflet/information also explained it verbally.

Kellie - posted on 08/08/2011

p

Katherine - posted on 08/08/2011

Yeah, she was not too smart. Maybe she was uneducated and didn't know it would pass? Maybe she thought breast was best. Who knows. But now that poor innocent baby is dead and she has no one but herself to blame.

Katherine - posted on 08/08/2011

I love chocolate.

Kellie - posted on 08/08/2011

yes the lag thing is more than a pain in the ass.

Ahh ok I thought she was an 'occasional' user while preggers. Not that that makes it ok, but it is better than constantly using for the unborn baby, well I would think (hope) so anyway...

Katherine - posted on 08/08/2011

Sorry this lag thing is REALLY making me mad.

There is another article saying she was a constant user during pregnancy and used about 3 times after giving birth.

http://www.thirdage.com/news/breastfeedi...

Kellie - posted on 08/08/2011

OMG LOL I knew when I did that you were posting so you could see too, but I ignored myself and posted anyway! Look at it this way Katherine, at least when we post now we can see, that's a HUGE improvement! before no amount of posting let you see squat!

Kellie - posted on 08/08/2011

once again posting so I can see.

Katherine - posted on 08/08/2011

Oh FFS!!!!!

Kellie - posted on 08/08/2011

My life hasn't been wonderful or easy, however I wouldn't change any of it, not even the really bad stuff. It all made me who I am and who would I be without all that? It's made me a better/stronger person and a better Mother, I did have the perfect example of what not to do after all.

To answer your question about wether she was still an addict or not despite being clean, only she can really answer that, but my feeling would be yes, I've recently given up smoking and I'm always fighting the urge to go and get a packet so I would imagine she fought the urge to go and get some Heroin too, BUT that's Addiction not disease dictating that want/need, that IS a mind over matter thing.

Laura, The article (from memory) implies she didn't use constantly throughout the pregnancy but rather a couple of times so it's possible that's how it was missed.

Katherine - posted on 08/08/2011

I'm really sorry to hear that Kellie. That must have been hard.

Jurnee - posted on 08/08/2011

Its a sad situation, what I want to know is how she got through an entire pregnancy using meth,and no one noticed and no one intervened to take that baby away at birth. I think it is probably more manslaughter, hard to tell what her state of mind was at the time, murder you usually have to prove intent. I feel its murder, but not sure that will stick legally. I do feel she needs to pay for this crime, hopefully she can get clean at the same time and she will also live with horror of her actions forever.

Kellie - posted on 08/08/2011

She died from AIDS when I was 15 (Dad died when I was 7 from an overdose). She was clean until then though.

Kellie - posted on 08/08/2011

I'm a bit over this lag, but it has improved I guess.

Katherine - posted on 08/08/2011

Well of course you can get clean. But it takes a lot of work. I see where you're going with this now.
You have to want to get clean. Do you still consider your mom an addict even though she's clean? Or is that over for her?

Kellie - posted on 08/08/2011

LOL!!!

Kellie - posted on 08/08/2011

posting so I can see. Fricken CoM

Katherine - posted on 08/08/2011

Posting to see reply.....

Kellie - posted on 08/08/2011

I will never believe or see it as a disease Katherine.

You get withdrawals because your body becomes reliant on what your putting into it, you take away your bodies ability to cope without what your putting into it and stopping needs to be gradual to ease your body into it so it can relearn how to cope without that drug.

I've lived with Addicts, I was sourounded by them when I was little. They CHOSE their lives and their choice was to use. My Mother got clean off of Heroin. So it can be done.

Katherine - posted on 08/08/2011

Argh!!! Lag!!!!

Katherine - posted on 08/08/2011

I didn't say she shouldn't be held accountable. I said an addiction is a disease. It's NOT mind over matter Kellie. Maybe from the outside looking in it seems that way, but it's not.

You get withdrawal symptoms, how is that a choice? You can have seizures and die like Amy did from suddenly stopping, how is that a choice? You can DIE from not taking the drug, you can die from taking the drug, there is no known cure for this disease called addiction. Even wiki states: The disease model of addiction describes an addiction as a lifelong disease involving biologic and environmental sources of origin.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease_mod...

Kellie - posted on 08/08/2011

I disagree. An Addiction is a choice not a Disease.

How does it start out as a choice to use whatever, become an Addiction, then become a disease? it doesn't start as a disease so why does it end as one?

I think by making it a disease we take the persons personal power and accountability away. Using is their way of escaping/altering their reality, and treating it as a disease, in my personal view, isn't going to fix why they use at the core leaving them wide open to relapse, Amy Winehouse is an excellent example of this. Everyone tried treating the "disease" but no one tried treating Amy, Her parents are in so much denial they said she died from Alcohol Withdrawal, based on that I'm thinking they weren't all that much help while she was alive.

If you knowingly use drugs while pregnant and breastfeeding you damn well know you are putting your baby at risk. That's Murder.

"Charges against a California mother have been upgraded from manslaughter to second-degree murder this week after evidence at preliminary hearings suggested that she knowingly endangered her infant's life by breast-feeding while using methamphetamine.

That's why there are varying degrees of Murder. She KNOWINGLY endangered her infant's life. Sorry but she Murdered him.

Anna - posted on 08/08/2011

Ashley, I don't doubt that she knew what she was doing was harmful. But intent to kill doesn't just mean that you knew better, did it anyway, and someone died as a result. It means that you did something BECAUSE you wanted this person to die. Death was your intent.

I think we all agree that she should be held accountable for her actions. It's mostly just a matter of to what extent should she be prosecuted. Either way our justice system is limited; it can't 'fix' her, or help her baby that has died.

Katherine - posted on 08/08/2011

@ Kelly an addiction IS a disease. It doesn't however mean you are not accountable.
She should be held accountable no doubt. She also has a disease and needs help. Plain and simple.

Ashley=) - posted on 08/08/2011

Anna i am angry about both.Although my anger is more directed towards the fact a child has died because of her stupid choices.I bet she would know that using while pregant is wrong....which to me would prove(to her) that the meth would be in her milk as it comes from her body.She knew ladies, i just wish someone could prove that..

Anna - posted on 08/08/2011

But what are we angry about here? Are we angry about her actions, or about the fact that her baby died from them? Sometimes I think people get too caught up in the tragedy that they demand a punishment that is somehow equal to the life lost, as opposed to equal to the action that was done. I realize she's a far cry from mother of the year, but to me, the combination of meth and breastfeeding just doesn't equal a murder charge (unless they can prove intent, which they can't, so far as I know it hasn't even been suggested). To me there is a pretty big difference between a death done on purpose out of malice and death out of recklessness.
Like I said earlier, I would understand a charge of manslaughter. That's a fairly hefty charge. I just don't think this is murder.

Kellie - posted on 08/07/2011

Personally I think it's Murder. So is Driving drunk and you hit and kill someone.

You KNOW that shit is dangerous. You KNOW it has the potential to kill you and you KNOW it comes out in your breast milk.

Hiding behind your addiction and pleading ignorance doesn't change that.

Laura Zoey - posted on 08/07/2011

It's sad that womb can get through a whole pregnancy and birth without someone noticing a street drug addiction and getting them help and keeping their baby safe. Some one should have known she had an addiction, that baby should have never left the hospital with her without some serious safety measures set up.
Unless she literally fooled every dr and nurse into not knowing she was a druggie.

Karla - posted on 08/07/2011

Here's another report which says,
"Charges against a California mother have been upgraded from manslaughter to second-degree murder this week after evidence at preliminary hearings suggested that she knowingly endangered her infant's life by breast-feeding while using methamphetamine.

Six-week-old Anthony Acosta III died last year after an allegedly lethal amount of the drug was passed to him when his mother, Maggie Jean Wortman, 26, continued to breast-feed despite her meth habit."

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Drugs/calif...

Stifler's - posted on 08/06/2011

It's manslaughter. She wasn't all "I'M GOING TO GET ON THE SHIT AND KILL MY BABY".

Firebird - posted on 08/06/2011

I'm pretty sure they call it manslaughter if it's an accident, that's what drunk drivers are charged with. I suppose that does depend where you're from though. So that's what she should be charged with.. manslaughter.

Anna - posted on 08/06/2011

Not to get off topic, but I don't understand why she would be charged with murder. It seems pretty obvious that there was no intent to kill. There was neglect, so I could understand a charge of manslaughter, but murder? Are drunk drivers even charged with murder when they recklessly kill someone?

Firebird - posted on 08/06/2011

You know, I know someone who's a meth addict and while she did use a few times during her pregnancies, she was sure damn smart enough not to breastfeed!

I'm sure she's plenty smart enough to know meth is bad for her Jen, she just doesn't care. Big difference.

Kellie - posted on 08/06/2011

Good ideas Tara, but I would add getting to the root of why the person is using in the first place and healing that should be added in there too. Addiction is the person running away from themselves, to be truly free they need to find themselves again. The rest will follow.

Tara - posted on 08/06/2011

No not at all.
There's not much we can do, keep informing the masses that drugs such as meth are bad for you, keep putting up big ads with meth mouth on them, or with pics of dead meth addicts etc. this case could become a public awareness campaign so no more stupid idiotic meth heads can say they didn't know.

She's dumb, she's a meth head, she's an addict, but she did kill her baby.
She should be charged and incarcerated, perhaps she will get some treatment for her addiction, some state paid for dental work and a fresh start at life. Hopefully she won't get out, go back on meth and have another baby.

And in cases where the mom has used meth during pregnancy, and this is found out during pregnancy, I think those mothers should be confined and monitored until the birth of the baby and then the baby should be put in care (with mom if she chooses to continue with treatment) until mom is clean and has some kind of life to offer the baby.

Kellie - posted on 08/06/2011

Agreed.

Jen - posted on 08/06/2011

No, I've always held the opinion that drug addicts who commit crimes are just as bad as drunk drivers. They all need to be held accountable for what they do.

Kellie - posted on 08/06/2011

I know you didn't, I'm not saying that you did.

However simply saying oh well she's a meth head and clearly an idiot, sort of is denying her accountability for her actions. It all destroys you, mind, body and soul whatever it is (my parents were Heroin Addicts and have been dead for many years so I've lived with these idiots). And I'm pretty sure the Addicts know it.

So what do we do? Just say, well Meth (in this case) does *A* to you so therefore we just ignore it and carry on?

Jen - posted on 08/06/2011

I didn't say not to hold her accountable. I am saying that she's clearly an idiot to begin with. Meth is so well known to really destroy your body faster than most other street drugs with heroin only slightly beating it out.

Kellie - posted on 08/06/2011

That's the thing Jen, people DO know, choose to ignore, then hide behind "but I'm a crackhead and fried all my brain cells" so I surely can't be held accountable for my actions *sniff sniff* can I? or my fave "but it's a diseaseeeeee and I can't helpppppp it..... urgh....

Jen - posted on 08/06/2011

I guess if you aren't smart enough to know that meth is bad for you period, you're aren't going to be bright enough to know much of anything.