Indiana prosecuting Chinese woman for suicide attempt that killed her foetus

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Guardian

When her baby Angel died in her arms at 1.30am on 3 January 2011, Bei Bei Shuai was so distraught she was instantly transferred to the mental health wing of the Methodist hospital in Indianapolis. Grief stricken and under heavy sedation, she was unaware that within half an hour of her baby's death a detective from the city's homicide branch had arrived at the maternity ward and had begun asking questions.

While Shuai was embarking on a journey into bereavement that continues to this day, the Indianapolis authorities were also setting out, albeit along a very different path. On 14 March last year Shuai was arrested and taken into custody in the high-security Marion County prison, where she was held for the next 435 days, charged with murdering her foetus and attempted feticide. If convicted of the murder count she faces a sentence of 45 years to life.

Bei Bei Shuai is at the sharp end of the creeping criminalisation of pregnancy across America. Women who lose their unborn babies – whether in cases of maternal drug addiction or in Shuai's case a failed suicide attempt – are increasingly finding themselves accused of murder.

Speaking publicly for the first time, Shuai told the Guardian she is determined to defend herself as she prepares for a murder trial scheduled for December. "I have a strong desire to stay in America," she said, three days after she had been released from jail on $50,000 bail. "I want to stay and fight this case. I have the best legal team, and I'm not afraid anymore to face the charges."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/30/indiana-prosecuting-chinese-woman-suicide-foetus

[madrchsod]

1. i have`t read one word about this

i have on line everyday for the last 3 yrs and somehow i missed this.

ya.."..ain`t that america

home of the free

and little pink houses for you and me..."

[dipsydoodle]

2. Oddly enough

I wasn't quite sure if this was old news here and I'd missed it myself. Obviously not so. ;

[IamK]

3. more details in link....

http://indylaw.indiana.edu/instructors/orentlicher/Articles/Court_Appeals_Decision.pdf


On December 21, Shuai bought rat poison. On December 23, when Shuai was thirty-three weeks pregnant, she wrote Guan, saying she felt she and the fetus were a burden on Guan, she had resolved to kill herself, and she was ―taking this baby, the one you named Crystal, with [her].‖ (State‘s Ex. 25 & 26.) Shuai then ingested rat poison. Shuai called Guan and told him she had ingested rat poison and was going to die.

[benld74]

4. The ACTUAL law is being TWISTED read further into the article people!

The feticide law, introduced in Indiana in 1979, was designed with violent third parties in mind: abusive boyfriends or husbands who attacked their pregnant partners, causing them to lose their unborn babies. It was enhanced to carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in 2007 after a bank robbery in which a pregnant woman was shot in the stomach, killing her fetus but leaving her alive.

[caseymoz]

6. Slight correction: fetus, not "unborn baby."

If you put a baby in a womb, it dies. If you take a fetus from the womb, it dies.

This anti-choice doublespeak is creeping into the language. There is no such thing as an "unborn baby."

Just to say, it seems to me the crime here is something other than murder.

[caraher]

5. I think The Nation did a piece on this not long ago

I don't think I read about it in the local papers even though I live near Indianapolis. I can't see how even the most strident "pro-life" folks can imagine that this makes any sense at all.

[caseymoz]

7. By turning this against women

Repubs are really asking to lose. They are already behind in the Black and Latino vote, permanently, and those ethnic groups will make up the majority in 20 years?

So, they alienate women, too? They're on their way to getting 20 percent of the vote by 2024.

[Myrina]

9. Not here in Indiana ...

... the knuckle-draggers keep electing more and more severe versions of themselves.

Note that longtime Senator Richard Lugar was defeated in his primary by totally batshit teabagger Mourdock last month, and equally batshit crazy wingnut Mike Pence is pretty much a shoo-in for Governator.

[caseymoz]

10. It won't come as a sudden turn.

It will come as a slow deterioration, as minority populations grow and as women realize how badly they've been undercut.

[CanonRay]

8. Good reason not to settle in Indiana

or any other of these Tea Party run states.