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Friday, July 15, 2011
Ind. Courts - "It is not too late for prosecutors to dismiss this case."
That is a quote from the final paragraph of this op/ed today in the Indianapolis Star, authored by David Orentlicher and Nada Stotland.* Some quotes:
Imagine your daughter is pregnant and living with the father-to-be of the child. Her partner leaves her, and your daughter becomes severely depressed. Driven to despair and believing herself worthless and blameworthy, she attempts suicide by swallowing rat poison, a method most likely to cause her agonizing pain. Fortunately, friends find her and take her to the hospital. Doctors are able to save her life, and they deliver her 33-week-old fetus by cesarean section. The baby survives for a few days before dying.The ILB has, by now, quite a long list of entries about this case.If your daughter lives in Chicago, Cincinnati or Cleveland, she will receive the mental health care she needs. In Indianapolis, the prosecutor will throw her in jail and file murder charges against her.
We've roughly described the facts in the case of Bei Bei Shuai, who has been locked up for four months. Her incarceration and prosecution serve no principles of justice. Moreover, her treatment disregards basic standards of medical practice.
That prosecutors would bring murder charges is incomprehensible. * * *
Prosecuting Shuai is not only bad law and bad medicine. It also violates the separation of powers in government. Rather than deciding on their own when an act constitutes a crime, prosecutors must take their direction from the legislature. For good reason, attempted suicide is not a crime. If a prosecutor disagrees, then the proper forum for making his case is the Statehouse, not a courthouse.
We understand that elected officials feel compelled to take action when a tragedy occurs. However, like doctors, public officials must first do no harm. Prosecutors only make things worse when they treat medical problems as if they were criminal offenses.
It is not too late for prosecutors to dismiss this case. Shuai should receive the psychiatric care she desperately needs, and other pregnant women should be assured that their visits to the doctor or a hospital will result not in a prison term but in the health care they and their unborn children need.
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Orentlicher, a former Democratic state representative, is Samuel R. Rosen Professor at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis. This column was co-authored by Nada Stotland, a psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 15, 2011 12:51 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts