Good column here, by Susan Martinuk. And thanks to everyone who helped me think this through at my earlier post. I will be discussing this with Brian Lilley on Sun TV today. His show airs at 9pm.
Isn’t there a “gender dividend” that lightens a sentence for women, but not for other genders? I suspect it was applied in this case. When that Saskatchewan man murdered his disabled daughter, his sentence was harsher The Supreme Court has likely applied the principle of “gender dividend.”
Let’s not forget that infanticide laws date from a time when women were considered irrational and prone to hysteria. There is really no basis in science (or feminism) for concluding that a woman who kills her baby must be suffering some form of psychosis, since no mother could possibly do that. Well, mothers routinely do that with abortion and I don’t hear anyone saying that all those women are mentally unfit when the decision to abort is made. I may sound uncompassionate to the pro-choicers, and even some pro-lifers. I’m willing to stipulate that choosing to kill your newborn, as Ms. Efferts did, may be born out of fear and confusion. I feel sad that she and others like her live lives of such emotional isolation, but that does not excuse their choice of action. And my heart breaks for the newborn who is strangled (or not) and thrown out like a piece of trash.
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Isn’t there a “gender dividend” that lightens a sentence for women, but not for other genders? I suspect it was applied in this case. When that Saskatchewan man murdered his disabled daughter, his sentence was harsher The Supreme Court has likely applied the principle of “gender dividend.”
Andrea, is their any video of this discussion? We on the east coast are limited in our news options.
Let’s not forget that infanticide laws date from a time when women were considered irrational and prone to hysteria. There is really no basis in science (or feminism) for concluding that a woman who kills her baby must be suffering some form of psychosis, since no mother could possibly do that. Well, mothers routinely do that with abortion and I don’t hear anyone saying that all those women are mentally unfit when the decision to abort is made. I may sound uncompassionate to the pro-choicers, and even some pro-lifers. I’m willing to stipulate that choosing to kill your newborn, as Ms. Efferts did, may be born out of fear and confusion. I feel sad that she and others like her live lives of such emotional isolation, but that does not excuse their choice of action. And my heart breaks for the newborn who is strangled (or not) and thrown out like a piece of trash.
Jennifer, the video is available here:
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/featured/prime-time/867432237001/infanticide-or-murder/1164136815001