Strollerderby : sad news

UPDATE: President Obama Issues Statement About Dr. George Tiller

Brett Singer — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:36:00 GMT

President Barack Obama has issued a statement about the murder of Dr. George Tiller:

I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.

Well said, Mr. President.

TheRoot.com points out: "It's fairly unusual for the White House to comment on this type of local story. But the news of Tiller's murder, allegedly by an anti-choice activist apprehended this afternoon by local and state police, has reverberated across the country in a matter of hours—and inflamed a longstanding debate about abortion rights in America."

Methinks this won't be the last we hear about the matter.

Original post follows:

*-*-*-*

Sad news from Kansas -- Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed while ushering at church. A suspect is in custody.

From Huffington Post:

WICHITA, Kansas -- Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas doctor whose clinic received national attention for performing late-term abortions, was shot to death as he entered his Wichita church on Sunday.
Tiller has been among the few U.S. physicians performing late-term abortion, making him a favored target of anti-abortion protesters. He testified that he and his family have suffered years of harassment and threats. His clinic was the site of the 1991 "Summer of Mercy" protests marked by mass demonstrations and arrests. His clinic was bombed in 1985, and an abortion opponent shot him in both arms in 1993.

Anti-abortion group Operation Rescue was no fan of Dr. Tiller; there is a "Tiller Watch" page on their web site. The group has issued a statement condemning the murder.

Tiller was recently tried for "allegedly consulting a second physician in late-term abortion cases who was not truly 'independent' as required by Kansas state law." It was a big deal case (we covered it on Strollerdery), with both sides tossing out big deal rhetoric. "Columnist Jack Cashill compared the trial to the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals, while NYU Professor Jacob Appel described Tiller as 'a genuine hero who ranks alongside Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr. in the pantheon of defenders of human liberty.'" (Source for both quotes: Wikipedia)

This is an ugly end to an ugly story. Hopefully the police have the right person and they will be punished. That won't bring anyone back to life, of course. No matter what side of the abortion debate you are on, I hope you agree that shooting someone in cold blood is a horrible thing to do.

Source: Huffington Post

Image: CrooksAndLiars

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Boy With Toy Gun Shot By Deputy

Brett Singer — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:00:00 GMT

You hear about things like this happening from time to time but you always hope it will stop. But it doesn't.

A boy was "playing cops and robbers" in Palmdale, California when he was shot by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy. He is now in the hospital in stable condition.

The police were responding to complaints from neighbors that someone was "riding a bicycle and brandishing a handgun." Deputies arrived on the scene, told the kid to drop the gun, and he pointed it at them instead. According to the report, the boy is 15, which seems a little old for that sort of behavior.

This quote, from sheriff's spokesman Deputy Ed Hernandez, is disturbing: "The deputies, fearing for their lives, shot him once. Later on, they determined it was a juvenile playing cops and robbers." I'm not blaming the police, especially since if the boy was really 15, he should know better. But the idea that a kid can have a gun that looks enough like a real one (the photo above is of a toy gun you can buy at Amazon.com) for a trained police officer to fear for their life...

Source: LA Times

Image: Amazon

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Homebirthing Advocate's Baby Dies During Homebirth

Brett Singer — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Janet Fraser is a big advocate for homebirth. She is described as "one of the principals behind the homebirth organization Joyous Birth," and goes so far as to call C-sections and episiotomies "birthrape." "I don't care if you don't like the word or the idea," she writes in an article on the site. "Survivors are angry and we are starting to talk about it."

Sadly, Ms. Fraser lost her baby during a recent homebirth. One site says that she had been in labor for "several days" at her Australian home. The Age had published an interview with Fraser a week before, in which she stated that she planned to deliver "the baby at home without an attending midwife," prompting The Australian College of Midwives to say that she "recklessly" promotes "free-birthing," which is where the mother gives birth alone, according to London's Daily Mail. (If that's not a good description of free-birthing, let me know and I'll update this article.)

The Age reports that police are investigating the newborn child's death. At press time authorities were unsure if the baby died after delivery or was stillborn; in the latter case, there is no autopsy.

It's tremendously sad when this happens of course, no matter where the birth occurs. It never occurred to my wife and I to have a homebirth, but of course millions of people do it and everything turns out fine. Medpie offers some statistics that are alarming, such as one study that found "an infant mortality rate of 2.2 per thousand for home births and 0.7 per thousand for hospital births in Sweden." They interpret these numbers as saying that "having a home birth resulted in a preventable death of the infant in one out of every 666 cases," which they call "not a reassuring number." But again, I'm not trying to say that homebirthing is automatically a bad idea. It's a choice, one that should be taken very seriously.

The real problem with Fraser's views isn't the views themselves but the way she expresses them. She's clearly angry, and may have reason to be. But as with those who are strong proponents of breastfeeding, it's better to advocate rather than attack anyone that may do things differently than you do. C-sections are sometimes medically necessary. Is that a "birthrape"? The rest of the site appears to be equally high in volume, such as this page about C-sections which makes the claim "The fact is that surgery is a suboptimal way to be born and that most surgeries are not for evidence based reasons," (emphasis not added), and advises mothers to "Put your anger where it belongs - with your surgeon." Because yelling at your doctor is an excellent way to get better healthcare.

With the obvious tragedy of what happened to Ms. Fraser's baby, it seems uncouth to really go after her with the same level of vituperativeness that she displays on the Joyous Birth site. And one sad event does not mean that every homebirth is a bad idea. But it seems fair to take a moment to suggest that the best course of action, when lives are at stake, is to take a deep cleansing breath and consider all of your options, rather than act out of anger or any sort of revolutionary zeal.

Source: medpie.com, others

Image from here

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Baby Dies After Being Left In Day Care Van

Brett Singer — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:30:00 GMT

This is just awful.

A 4-month-old child died on Thursday after being left in a van for more than five hours. The driver of the van has been charged with a felony and the day care center, Bumble Bee Learning Center, has been shut down pending an investigation. The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel says that the driver "has no record with Milwaukee police but has two arrest warrants with the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department for paternity." To me that should disqualify him from working with children, but I guess not.

Even more horrible is the fact that this is the third time a child in Milwaukee County as a result of being left unattended in a day care van.

Alphabet Street Learning Center, owned by the same company, was also shut down. That's where an employee was accused of breaking two kids' arms.

Stories like these remind us of how much trust we place in the people who take care of our children when we're not around. It's bad enough that something like this can happen once. But three children dying, and others injured? How can these centers still be open?

Source/Image: Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel

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On Jett Travolta, Howard Stern Gets It Right

Brett Singer — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:00:00 GMT

This morning on Sirius XM Radio, Howard Stern commented on the death of John Travolta and Kelly Preston's son Jett Travolta. In the past, Howard has ruthlessly mocked Scientology; long before it was de rigeur to poke fun at L. Ron Hubbard's celebrity religion, he would read internal Scientology newsletters on the air, exposing their wackiness to the world at large. So one might expect Stern to go after Travolta with both barrels.

Not this time. He said that while some were going to condemn Travolta and Preston for not giving their son medication for what most people felt was autism, he wasn't going to go there, at least not today. Then he made the best point anyone can make about Jett's passing: "There's nothing sadder than burying your own child."

That phrase, "There's nothing sadder", gets thrown around much too easily in my opinion. For example, I once received an email from a parent telling me that there was "nothing sadder than an empty PTA meeting." So I wanted to give Stern credit for showing compassion, as well as use the opportunity to say something about the phrase "there's nothing sadder". Maybe I’m over-reacting, but it makes me nuts when people use it too freely. While I suppose it's possible that there is something sadder than burying your own child, I can guarantee you that there are many things sadder than an empty PTA meeting.

Now, lest you think that The Howard Stern Show has become an encounter group, he did later joke that kawasaki disease, which Jett reportedly suffered from, is a disease that "turns you into a motorcycle." (It was kind of a funny, throw away line said during a conversation.) So whatever you think of Howard or his long-running radio show, let's give him credit for getting this one right.

[image]

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Babysitter Made Pornographic Film With 2 Year Old

Brett Singer — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:45:00 GMT

This is a really hard one to write. It's basically every parent's worst nightmare, or at least one of them. Actually, it probably can't really be called your worst nightmare since that implies the thought would have actually occurred to you.

Basically, 23-year-old Aaron Jay Lemon of Little Canada, Minnesota ran an ad on Craig's List looking for a job as a babysitter. He was hired by a St. Paul couple to watch their 2 year old. Then he made pornographic videos with the child.

The one positive seems to be that Lemon pleaded guilty, so there won't be a trial. I know that's not much of consolation but with a story like this, I'll take what I can get.

This happened back in 2007, and it appears that Lemon was exchanging child pornographic videos with someone else, which led to an investigation and his eventual arrest. He lived with his mother, who had no comment for the press.

There's also a very scary quote from Erin Hammill, the owner of a company called Above and Beyond Nannies. "There is no way that you can tell a sex offender. You don't just trust…But if you checked four references, you would have a sense of who they're dealing with." Her company checks pretty thoroughly – "10 character references, five employer references", a credit check, and more. Hammill went on to say, "I think that people are using Craig's List because the economy is so poor…But no one should use Craig's List for a baby-sitter. That's just playing the victim role. That's like saying, 'Oh my gosh, I'm walking down a dark alley, and I'm carrying my life savings in my wallet.' "

I tend to agree, although I don't know that I could muster up a scolding if I were talking directly to the parents who just experienced this horror. (As far as I know, Hammill just gave a quote to a reporter and wasn't speaking specifically to the parents of the 2 year old.)

"There is no way that you can tell a sex offender." That definitely got to me.

Again, the one teeny little positive thing here is that the guy is caught, pled guilty, and will go to jail. The maximum sentence is 30 years. That doesn't seem like enough.

Source: TwinCities.com

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Conjoined Twin Surgery: One Lives, One Dies

Brett Singer — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:30:00 GMT

An operation to separate the one-week-old conjoined twins, named Hope and Faith, resulted in the Hope's death. Faith is still alive, with a "50-50 chance of survival," according to published reports.

The twins were born last week to Laura Williams. At 18, she is said to be the youngest woman ever to give birth to conjoined twins in Britain.

Listen to this: "The sisters were joined from the breastbone to the top of the navel. They shared their blood circulation but had their own organs, though they were joined at the liver and intestines." Can you imagine? I can, but not easily.

The doctors who performed the separation procedure wanted to wait but "the twins' health was deteriorating," which led to the emergency surgery.

So sad. I mean, what can you say? At least one of them survived? That's good news, right? Somehow it doesn't offset the sadness of the other half of the story. The fact that the twins' names are Hope and Faith got to me even more.

Source: AFP via Google

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Sad footnote to sad story

Brett Singer — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:30:00 GMT

31-year-old Timothy O'Connor was speeding past the funeral procession for firefighter Martin Simmons (pictured). When pulled over, he told police that he was trying to get to the front because the funeral was for his grandfather.

When police informed him whom the procession was for, he admitted to lying through his speeding teeth. What was the reason for the lame excuse? Well, the Racer X wanna-be was driving with a suspended license. But hey, first offense, right? Nope. He's had his license suspended 22 times.

Apparently he was speeding, "driving erratically and changing lanes without signaling."

I'm no legal expert but how exactly can you have your license suspended that many times and still be allowed to drive? Driving shouldn't be something that you are just allowed to do no matter what. Isn't that the point of having licenses in the first place? What does it take to get your license suspended, like, forever? What if he had hit another car – like the one carrying Martin Simmons' family?

At least Speedy admitted he was full of it when he found out whose funeral it was. Still, what a jerk.

Source: Newsday (and thanks to Brian for the tip)

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Dad drowns saving his son

Brett Singer — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:30:00 GMT

Martin Simmons, a firefighter from a Ladder 111 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, drowned yesterday after saving his 10-year-old son Kevin from drowning.

The family was on vacation in Tahoe, and the boy had jumped into the water, which was very cold. He got a leg cramp and started to flail, and his father jumped in to save him. Then his brother-in-law, the boy's uncle, jumped in to help. Kevin and his uncle are fine; Martin died at the scene.

Simmons' firefighting partner Joe Honan said, in the Daily News, "We do that for strangers. Of course he'd do that for his own son." I think we all would, although not all of us run into burning buildings to help strangers.

This is just incredibly sad and I hope the poor kid gets counseling to deal with the loss of his dad, and the (undeserving) guilt he will likely feel. My dad died when I was young, and it just flat out sucks. Cliché as it sounds, my heart goes out to the family.

image/source: NYDailyNews