14 year old Girl that killed her newborn baby

[antigone382]

61. I'm not disputing that at all.

And I haven't seen anyone else do so, either. This girl ended a life, she has been charged as such, and she will be forced to pay consequences for her actions.

But I repeat that this is a fourteen-year-old whose capacity for moral reasoning, as a matter of absolute biological fact, is not fully developed. We do not know how real the threat of violence by her mother, the father of her child (of whom we know absolutely nothing--whether he is a similarly aged teenager or a forty-year-old family member, we just don't know), or anyone else was. We do not know her level of ignorance or even her diagnosable mental health. Her willingness to do herself significant physical harm by putting scissors in her vagina indicates something beyond sociopathy or the avoidance of responsibility.

We do know that the sheriff investigating the case (who is probably aware of many details that we have no clue about), while noting the horrific and sickening nature of the crime, has pointed out that we need to take her age into account and ask ourselves where her support network was. I will take him at his word.