It's my week to be on the bummer beat. To wit: A couple in Atlanta was sentenced to life in prison in the death of their 6-week old son. They were convicted last year of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children for feeding the baby only soy milk and apple juice.
Crown Shakur, the son of Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas, was only three and a half pounds when he died. The baby was born at home, so no records existed of his birth weight, but he was a full term baby and 3.5 pounds is less than half normal size. Also, there was only one bottle anywhere in the house.
He was never seen by a doctor in his entire six weeks of life, and the parents claimed they didn’t realize he was in real trouble until minutes before he died.
They couple claim they were vegans and thought the soy milk and apple juice diet was reasonable. A similar case in New York a few years ago led to a lighter sentence. Prosecutors, however, charged the couple deliberately starved their son.
Now I am not a vegan, but a very quick Google search turned up no evidence whatsoever that vegans would recommend such a whackjob way of feeding a baby – in fact, two different nutritionists were very clear that there is no acceptable homemade alternative to baby formula.
And it seems like vegans would be natural breastfeeders. I mean I know they are against animal products, but people products? Which the person can give willingly? Why not breastfeed if at all possible?
What do you think? Malicious? Or just plain dumb?
