Question

From: Munson, Ronald. INTERVENTION AND REFLECTION.6th ED.,Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company,2000 ., Page 181 Decision Scenario #3 Susan Roth was looking forward to being a mother. She had quit her secretarial job three months before her baby was due so she could spend the time getting everything ready. Her husband, David, was equally enthusiastic, and they spent many hours happily speculating about the way things would be when their baby came. It was their first child. ?I hope they don?t mix her up with some other baby,? Mrs. Roth said to her husband after delivery. She didn?t know yet tat there was little chance of confusion. The Roth infant was seriously deformed. Her arms and legs had failed to develop, her skull was misshapen, and her face deformed. Her large intestine emptied through her vagina, and she had no muscular control over her bladder. When she was told, Mrs. Roth said ?We cannot let it live, for her sake and ours.? On the day she left the hospital with the child, Mrs. Roth mixed a lethal dose of a tranquilizing drug with the baby?s formula and fed it to her. The child died that evening. Mrs. Roth and her husband were charged with infanticide. During the court proceedings, Mrs. Roth admitted to the killing but said she was satisfied she had done the right thing. ?I know I could not let my baby live like that, ? she said. ?If only she had been mentally abnormal, she would not have known her fate. But she had a normal brain. She would have known. Placing her in an institution might have helped me, but it wouldn?t have helped her. The jury, after deliberating for two hours, found Mrs. Roth and her husband guilty of the charge. **************************************** Mrs. Susan Roth gave birth to a severely deformed child. She took it home and gave tranquilizing drugs to the child and the child died on the first night home. Was her action morally correct? Should there be laws against this form of infanticide? How would someone respond to this question using the ethical principles of: (Respond using the principles of the ethical tradition Kantian

Answer 1

* Was her action morally correct ?

- No her action was not morally correct as she could have approach all other possibility to get treat some of disability from all other severe disability. Some child do develop with several deformity but with the advance treatment some of the deformity can be treated through which child is able to live basic life .

* Should there be law against this type of infanticide.

- yes there should be law against this type of infanticide - that is killing infant by giving drug , as this is the act of murder . The law is that if tje child is born without brain than that is considered under infanticide right , but with other several deformity infanticide act should be taken strick action . As otherwise this will become a trend to one to one person .

* How would someone respond to this using ethical principle of tradition kantian .

- child born with severe deformity are subjected to physical care and treatment to treat some of them disability to libe their basic life , after giving birth there is no right of infanticide is there . If someone suspect with such deformity there is advance technology who suspect the deformity and advice for the termination of the pregnancy but after reaching to the third trimester government also doenst allow for termination of the oregnancy so infanticide that is killing newborn after birth ia huge act of murder .