What has happened is a horror and a tragedy. I cannot begin to fathom what could possibly have driven this woman to commit such a deed. But something did drive her to it. It's called depression. She was under treatment. She had attempted suicide. She was under therapy. She was taking medication. She was apparently making progress. There is much evidence that she loved her children.

But days after the event, people are calling for not only the execution of the mother, but punishment for the father as well. Who else shall we punish? The grandmother, who was on the phone with the mother that day? The doctors and therapists who were attempting to help her? What kind of witch-hunt are you calling for here?

The enemy is called "depression". It is a mental illness. It can lead to psychosis. There are not always clear signs. This woman showed every sign of improvement. She is going to have to live with this deed for the rest of her life, however long or short that is. If and when she is cured, the knowledge of what she did while she was ill is going to haunt her to her grave. What larger punishment can you imagine for her? Her husband cries for his children. He has the compassion not to compound tragedy with tragedy. He is an amazing man, to be able to understand in the face of all that has happened that there is a sixth remaining vicim to this and is willing to stand by her.

How shall we avoid this in the future? Shall we remove all children whose mothers have postpartum depression from their homes and place them in foster care? Shall we take it a step further and remove all children from homes where either parent is currently being treated for any kind of depression? I know ... let's place all children in foster care whose parents were ever treated for depression. That will keep them safe.

There is a good, brief article at the New York Times web site today:
Mom Describes Killing Five Kids. You need to sign up with the New York Times site to be able to read it, but don't let that stop you. I have never received a single piece of junk email because I joined there, and I now have access to some fine news reporting. This is not a touch-feely article exonerating the mother. Those of you on looking for reasons to hate will find plenty more excuses to do just that, if all you decide to read are the details of the attack. But if you read the article through to the end, you will find some additional information about postpartum depression and psychosis. I suspect that this is something that we'll read more about as this case progresses.

It is estimated that over half of new mothers experience post-partum depression. One to two percent of these women may develop a full blown psychosis from this. It is a tragedy. It is a horror. And we add to it when we lose human compassion.