Terrifying Precedent: Woman to Be Tried for Murder for Giving Birth to Stillborn When She Was 16

[Crunchy Frog]

153. Ignorance about how medicine and law are practiced

is no excuse for posting ignorantly about the subject.

You've never gotten a prescription as a woman, have you? Well I have. Lots of times. Many of those prescriptions were for meds that could potentially harm a fetus. Many of them came with labels saying not to take if pregnant, or if you might become pregnant.

I've never been given a pregnancy test before being prescribed medication (except when they were meds for IVF). The only meds that they do that for are extreme teratogens like accutane. At most you might get asked if you could potentially be pregnant, and then tested if you said yes. Are you saying that all of the doctors I've ever seen were not worth their degrees? And what if you have a negative pregnancy test, begin a medication, and then get pregnant? Jail for not using contraception adequately?

As far as prosecution for drug use, first, there was apparently no trace of drugs in the girl's system, so no evidence of drug use. As others have said, the trace byproducts found in the fetus could have come from any number of other sources.

The other thing is that they do not prosecute for drug use based on information discovered in medical settings. If they did, nobody who used illicit drugs would ever go to a doctor, and they sure as hell would never seek medical treatment for addiction.

Maybe you should learn a little more about how the world works before spouting off.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.