The Baby Killer

[JR]

What do you guys think about the woman who refused a C-Section to save her twin, unborn babies.... one died and she was charged with murder.





Last edited by JR at Mar 12 2004, 12:10 PM

[Vick]

Not enough info

JR - do you have a link to any story on it?

[JR]

Originally posted by Vick@Mar 12 2004, 12:12 PM
Not enough info

JR - do you have a link to any story on it?
i am brainwashed by CNN but i dont see it on their site yet. its just playing on TV.

several doctors told a woman that if she did not get a c-section one or possibly both of her unborn twin children would not survive birth. she refused a c-section, one baby died and she was charged with murder right after giving birth.

[JR]

SALT LAKE CITY — A woman accused of murder because she allegedly avoided a Caesarean section (search) that could have saved her unborn twin has denied the charge, saying she already had scars from earlier C-sections.

Her attorney, meanwhile, said she had a long history of mental illness.

Melissa Ann Rowland, 28, was charged Thursday of showing "depraved indifference to human life," ignoring medical advice to deliver her twins by C-section because she didn't want to be scarred. One nurse told police Rowland said she would rather "lose one of the babies than be cut like that."

Rowland told Salt Lake City radio station KSL from jail that "I already have a pretty nasty scar, it doesn't matter at all now," The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Her attorney, Michael Sikora, called a C-section major surgery and told the Tribune "it would come as no surprise that a woman with major mental illness would fear it."

The documents allege that Rowland was warned numerous times between Christmas and Jan. 9 that her unborn twins would likely die if she did not get immediate medical treatment, the documents allege. When she delivered them on Jan. 13, the twin girl survived but the boy died.

Shortly afterward, Rowland was jailed on a child endangerment charge involving the surviving twin, who has been adopted by a family Rowland knows.

Rowland told the radio station she has two other children who live with their grandparents in Virginia. Sikora said Rowland moved to Utah with a boyfriend and is either divorced or estranged from her husband. She lives in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan.

A spokesman for the district attorney, Kent Morgan, had said earlier that Rowland was married.

The case could affect abortion rights and open the door to the prosecution of mothers who smoke or don't follow their obstetrician's diet, said Marguerite Driessen, a law professor at Brigham Young University (search).

"It's very troubling to have somebody come in and say we're going to charge this mother for murder because we don't like the choices she made," she said.

The woman sought medical advice in December because she hadn't felt the fetuses move, documents said.

Regina Davis, a nurse at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake, told police that during a visit there, Rowland was recommended two hospitals to go to for immediate care. Rowland allegedly said she would rather have both twins die before she went to either of the suggested hospitals.

On Jan. 2, a doctor at LDS Hospital saw Rowland and recommended she immediately undergo a C-section based on the results of an ultrasound and the fetus' slowing heart rates. Rowland left after signing a document stating that she understood that leaving might result in death or brain injury to one or both twins, the doctor told police.

The same day, a nurse at Salt Lake Regional Hospital saw Rowland, who allegedly told her she had left LDS Hospital because the doctor wanted to cut her "from breast bone to pubic bone," a procedure that would "ruin her life."

LDS Hospital can't comment on the case because of medical privacy issues and the pending court case, said spokesman Robert Pexton.

The doctor who performed an autopsy found that the fetus died two days before delivery and would have survived if Rowland had undergone a C-section when urged to do so. It was not immediately clear how far along Rowland was in her pregnancy.

She was charged in Salt Lake County with one first-degree felony count of criminal homicide. Rowland was being held on $250,000 bail at the Salt Lake County jail, and was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

If convicted, she could be sentenced to between five years and life in prison.

"We are unable to find any reason other than the cosmetic motivations by the mother" for her decision, Morgan said.

Caesarean sections usually involve delivery through a surgical incision in the abdomen and front wall of the uterus. Dr. Christian Morgan, a family practice doctor who regularly performs C-sections at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center (search), said he had never seen vertical skin incisions performed at LDS Hospital for a first-time C-section.

"Even when you need to get a baby out in minutes, it can still be done in the bikini incision," Christian Morgan said.

[pushpills]

I am full of opinions.



That is called natural birth, not murder. There seems to be some confusion.

[JR]

Originally posted by pushpills@Mar 12 2004, 12:24 PM
I am full of opinions.


yes but your opinions seem to largely revolve around the question of whether or not she will like your Camaro.

[pushpills]

Originally posted by JR+Mar 12 2004, 12:27 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (JR @ Mar 12 2004, 12:27 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteBegin--pushpills@Mar 12 2004, 12:24 PM
I am full of opinions.


yes but your opinions seem to largely revolve around the question of whether or not she will like your Camaro.[/b][/quote]
No, this only came up last night cuzz of donavan, If he'd told me ahead of time he doesn't love cars and has owned a honda, I would have passed it over.

[Vick]

this bring us back to the nasty issue

Should some people need to have a license to procreate?

[JR]

Originally posted by pushpills+Mar 12 2004, 12:30 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (pushpills @ Mar 12 2004, 12:30 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Originally posted by -JR@Mar 12 2004, 12:27 PM
<!--QuoteBegin--pushpills@Mar 12 2004, 12:24 PM
I am full of opinions.


yes but your opinions seem to largely revolve around the question of whether or not she will like your Camaro.
No, this only came up last night cuzz of donavan, If he'd told me ahead of time he doesn't love cars and has owned a honda, I would have passed it over.[/b][/quote]
oh... i thought you were bragging that it was the best investment you ever made and that it got you laid all the time. i might have confused you with a different dipshit from GFY who thinks the world of his new $5,000.00 car because its the only thing he owns.

[pushpills]

"the best investment you ever made and that it got you laid all the time"

that's true but the topic is closed now sorry, back to this threads intent.

[Almighty Colin]

That's a hell of a story. Not resolvable within my belief matrix.

[Red]

This is a very sticky situation. It is not illegal to refuse medical treatment. If she refused the C section due to religious beliefs, there would have been no charges filed. The problem is she refused because she didn't want to be cut. She was not told the baby would definitely die if she did not have it, she was told it might, so she took the chance. Personally, I would have had the C.
Charging her with murder though, opens the door to file charges against any woman who does not have good prenatal care, who smokes or drinks while pregnant. Granted, those decisions are stupid and have potential danger for the baby, but criminal? It may be morally wrong, but charging her just gives the government more leway to try and control what we do with our bodies. Just my .02



Last edited by Red at Mar 12 2004, 02:34 PM

[HoneyBlond]

Originally posted by Colin@Mar 13 2004, 07:57 AM
Not resolvable within my belief matrix.
I'm with Colin.

[LadyLaw]

The mother is mentally ill. It doesn't change the outcome, but there is more to the story. The prosecutor tries to make this look like vanity was the only reason why the mother here (Rowland ) didn't accept medical advice and have a C-section. I found this on another site:

"Rowland, herself a twin, was born to a mentally retarded mother. She was placed in foster care almost immediately and adopted before her first birthday. Her twin brother had serious medical problems and died when he was 7, Sikora said.

Rowland was committed to a Pennsylvania mental hospital when she was 12, weighing almost 200 pounds, and diagnosed with "oppositional defiant disorder," Sikora said. The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry defines the condition as an ongoing pattern of uncooperative, defiant and hostile behavior toward authority figures that seriously interferes with day-to-day functioning."

This whole thing is a tragedy. I would take the surviving twin and put it up for adoption, tie her tubes for good, but put her in prison....no.

[Winetalk.com]

Originally posted by JR@Mar 12 2004, 03:10 PM
What do you guys think about the woman who refused a C-Section to save her twin, unborn babies.... one died and she was charged with murder.
did you make a football icon just for me, so I wouldn't venture in the thread?
;-)

[slavdogg]

Originally posted by LadyLaw@Mar 12 2004, 09:35 PM
diagnosed with "oppositional defiant disorder," Sikora said. The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry defines the condition as an ongoing pattern of uncooperative, defiant and hostile behavior toward authority figures that seriously interferes with day-to-day functioning."

shit my brother has been saying this about me all my life

[Peaches]

Originally posted by LadyLaw@Mar 12 2004, 10:35 PM
The mother is mentally ill. It doesn't change the outcome, but there is more to the story. The prosecutor tries to make this look like vanity was the only reason why the mother here (Rowland ) didn't accept medical advice and have a C-section. I found this on another site:

"Rowland, herself a twin, was born to a mentally retarded mother. She was placed in foster care almost immediately and adopted before her first birthday. Her twin brother had serious medical problems and died when he was 7, Sikora said.

Rowland was committed to a Pennsylvania mental hospital when she was 12, weighing almost 200 pounds, and diagnosed with "oppositional defiant disorder," Sikora said. The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry defines the condition as an ongoing pattern of uncooperative, defiant and hostile behavior toward authority figures that seriously interferes with day-to-day functioning."

This whole thing is a tragedy. I would take the surviving twin and put it up for adoption, tie her tubes for good, but put her in prison....no.
Wow. Very sad. Did anyone deal with her mental problems while she was pregnant? :unsure:

[*KK*]

Let's just hope she doesn't own a Camaro and that's what caused this problem.

Personally I think if the hospitals etc were so worried about her they'd have gotten a court order to save the baby, just like they do in the movies. A murder charge is just ridiculous. And hopefully not indicative of the extreme right this country is taking once it gets to court.

[LadyLaw]

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Mar/03122004/images/wn_rowland.jpg


Peaches: No, it doesn't look like anybody did anything.

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Mar/03122004/ut...utah/147031.asp (http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Mar/03122004/utah/147031.asp)

[Meni]

Does the smoking gun have Serge's mugshot from 1977?
or is it on consumption junction