Question

Andrea Yates, age 37, was tried by a jury in Texas for drowning her five young children. She is being treated for post-partum psychotic depression. Two weeks before she murdered her children, Andrea stopped taking her Haldol medication. Haldol is a powerful anti-psychotic drug. Do you believe she is guilty of murder of innocent by reason of insanity? Defend you answer using this case or others.

Answer 1

After analysing the case of Andrea Yates, we can identify that Post-Partum psychotic depression is rare case and 1 woman in every 750 face the symptoms. In that case the cause of murder cannot be justified by the depression and the drug had been stopped by Andrea Yates because she might have felt the normal condition.

The symptoms of depression do not contain the capability to harm by death to anyone, in this case we cannot confirm the actual reason of murdering is Post-Partum depression. In some cases of Post-Partum depression, behavioural change do not seem to be this kind of harmful, mood disturbance, anxiety and insomnia are some kind of symptoms and these symptoms are not worse to harm of death.