Worst parent nominee: Co-sleeping while drunk

At first I was very sympathetic to the mother. She went to sleep alongside her 6-day-old baby, and the baby died. Poor woman, and then they charge her with second-degree reckless homicide.

But then I read the article. There are unextenuating circumstances.

• It's not the first time. Last year, the same thing happened with her 2-month old daughter. Or the second.  In 1993, her other daughter died while sleeping with the grandmother.
• How it happened was mom was drunk on her ass from drinking Bacardi Hurricane, can't remember coming home, put her baby on her car keys on the couch, and laid next to the baby, pushing it's face into the back of the couch, and it suffocated.
• Mom is a damned child care worker (or was until she was arrested for killing her baby). She should know better.

Worst parent nominee: Suffocating a newborn

This girl in Nevada doesn't seem to learn. In 2006, she dropped a stillborn baby in the trash in a Las Vegas casino bathroom. She wasn't charged in that case, because she was 16. (Is it legal for 16-year-olds, or do they just not bother with kids? You'd think it would at least be against health codes to drop a body in a public bathroom trash can.)

This August, she said she smothered a newborn, because she was afraid her mother would kick her out of the house. She says she didn't know she was pregnant until she gave birth, and when it popped out, she strangled it. An autopsy failed to confirm that the cause of death was suffocation.

Makes you wonder how still that first child was when it was born.

Makes you also wonder about the loving nature of the household, if the daughter is enough afraid of being kicked out of the house for screwing up that she will kill her baby to avoid being found out. This is a girl who should have noticed that she hadn't had a period lately and then invested in an abortion. It's also an argument against parental notification. This girl was afraid to go to her mother for advice on what to do when she was pregnant.

Mostly I'm passive about abortion, literally pro-choice, saying it should be up to a woman, after consultation with the father, her doctor, and her god. But other times I'm pro-abortion; that is, I wish certain women would choose abortion.

Being an atheist, I don't think there is any intrinsic moral issue involved. I believe a nation's morality is a sum of what feels right to the people in the culture. What feels right to any person is a complicated stew of genetic and epigenetic dispositions, what happens to us growing up, and what our parents, televisions, music, and (mostly) our friends tell us is right.

So in a case where a kid is likely to be unwanted (yes, including severely handicapped, if the mom can't muster as much devotion as it takes), I wish the pregnant woman would hit Control-Z and undo it until they're ready to be a mom. Freaknomics has a chapter on this issue, saying that legalization of abortion coincided with a drop in the crime rate in states where it was legalized. They attributed it to fewer unwanted kids. Later they had to back up a little, due to a data misinterpretation, but half of their effect stands. Whether kids are wanted is a big factor in the crime rate.

Worst parent nominee: Prayer instead of medicine

As it is in Wisconsin, so is it in Pennsylvania, except this couple will stand trial for manslaughter for choosing prayer over medicine for their dying 2-year-old.

Their defense is they didn't know the kid was that sick. They thought they were praying to cure the flu or a cold, so it's not a religious freedom issue but a dumb parent issue. Frankly, I think that's a decent defense, if true, and I have no reason to doubt it. It's not like the parents had shown intellectual leanings before. They quit school after 9th grade. They work as teachers at their church. I wonder what level.

And we can thank Mr. Darwin for giving us the insight that, to the extent that whatever made these parents do what they did is genetic, there is less of it in the gene pool because of them.

Worst parent nominee: Prayer instead of medicine

Parents in Wisconsin who prayed over their 11-year-old daughter instead of taking her to the doctor were given 6 months in jail after the girl died of treatable but undiagnosed diabetes. The judge said they were good people who made  a bad decision.

"God probably works through other people," (the judge) told the parents, "some of them doctors."

I think this family should be given a Darwin Award rather than jail time.

I'm reminded of the story about a guy whose house was flooded, and a cop car came to rescue him. "No, God will save me." The water rose, and the cops sent a boat. "No, God will save me." The water rose higher, and the cops sent a helicopter. "No, God will save me." The guy drowned, and at the judgment seat, he said to God, "I thought you were going to save me." God said, "I sent a car, I sent a boat, I sent a helicopter ..."

There is a similar story in commentary to the Koran. Ali ibn Abi Talib (husband of Fatima and son-in-law of Mohammed) was sitting outside a mosque when a man rode up on a horse and got off to walk into the mosque. Ali said, "You forgot to tie up your horse." The man said, "I trust in God to look after my horse." Ali said, "No. First tie up your horse, then trust in God."