Sunday, February 19, 2006

I hate this man:

A woman accused of chopping the arms off her 10-month-old daughter believed she was supposed to die along with her baby, a mental health counselor testified Thursday.

...[Dena] Schlosser, 37, thought she was "to have gone to God and that something went horribly wrong the day of the tragedy," Wing said.

Schlosser has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the November 2004 death of her baby Margaret, known as Maggie....

Before the slaying, Wing testified, Schlosser had refused anti-psychotic medications because her church considered them something "of the devil."

Schlosser, her husband and their three children went several times a week to the Water of Life Church. The pastor, Doyle Davidson, testified Wednesday that he believes mental illness is possession by demons and only God can cure it.


...After her arrest, Schlosser was diagnosed with manic depression and declared mentally incompetent to stand trial. But in May, after doctors treated her, a judge found she was competent.


My first thought in response to this was "There ought to be a law" -- though I really don't see how you could draw the line. (Jail Tom Cruise if an Oprah viewer goes off antidepressants and does her child harm?) In any case, this is one of our homegrown mullahs; he walls himself off from the modern world just the way they do. I guess we're a more civilized society because his atavistic ideas only led one person to take one innocent life.

(Restored post)

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