Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Mom charged with killing baby in microwave oven
- Thread starter Thomas Veil
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Dang, it reminds me of one of those "dead baby" jokes you can find on the net, except this time it's real. 
In NYC we have something similar to this. You can drop off a baby at any police station anonymously. It was too prevent crazy stuff like finding newborns in the trash bins or other sick stuff like that. But unfortunately even with that, we still find dead babies every year. I'm not sure statistically if the number has gone down or not with the drop-off plan.
maybe i am just used to saying microwave as a verb AND a noun, the quote above means she used microwave radiation inside a normal baking oven.
know what i mean?
id would be best to say she was microwaved, instead of microwaving which is barely a word.
I would personally not be in a nitpicky grammar mood after hearing about what happened
Here's one rare instance where I would advocate the Old Testament philosophy of "eye for an eye"...
Hold on a second here. She's been accused of the murder a year after the actual event, and the night before the baby was taken to hospital the mother and father both went out, leaving the child with a babysitter.
Although you've got to wonder how many mothers out there leave their month-old newborn with a babysitter, I'm sure that's not a crime in any of the US. So far it's innocent until proven guilty from my POV.
Although you've got to wonder how many mothers out there leave their month-old newborn with a babysitter, I'm sure that's not a crime in any of the US. So far it's innocent until proven guilty from my POV.
the basis for such defense is thus:
would you, as a juror, consider ANYONE who could possibly commit this crime to be of sound mind?
would you, as a juror, be crazy to do such a thing?
9/10 says yes, she goes to a hospital and not the chair.
The objective facts - microwaving your own infant offspring in an oven - may point to insanity. But subjectively, the method used could be simply to obscure the facts by engaging the emotions of those involved and driving them instantly consider "This person must be INSANE. How could she DO such a thing?".
To kill a child in this fashion, about which there is very little prior forensic data or scientific knowledge, may simply be the result of a highly calculated attempt to blamelessly rid herself of the child utterly and not some insane craving for crispy baby or "to see what happened". (See snopes.com for various apocryphal tales of babies cooked following drug intake/hallucination.)
Even if it is proven that the child was killed by being microwaved in an oven, it is only one part of proving that the act was carried out by Arnold. If this were taking place in the UK (especially Scotland), I would expect acquittal due to insufficient evidence. It'll be interesting to see what happens, especially since Ohio still has the death penalty. Urgh.
Germany has had "baby hatches" for a number of years.
I also think judging someone from a newspaper report is somewhat silly.If past cases are anything to go by a sane person is much more likely to commit a crime like this than someone insane.
You can do this in the US already. It saves a lot of babies from abandonment or mistreatment.
I agree that hatches are a very good idea. If a mother is unfit to care for a human being, why take any chances? Give the infant a fighting chance at a good life, instead of...you know...nuking it.
wow. that is really sad. for the baby but even moreso for the mother. imean, to be that desperate to get rid of your child or that insane....
Would you think a good thing had been done? Would you sleep easier at night? Would you like to watch it? Would you cheer as it happened? Would you buy a DVD of the event? A promotional tshirt? Would you truly feel that justice had been done? Would you be proud?
I expect a microwaving for a microwaving would leave everyone cooked.
Tsk.
I agree with your viewpoint actually.
I am sick of "media mob's" caused by overzealous journalists, or other groups spouting off information or stories about touchy cases like this. I do not like what has happened to the baby, however I refuse to pass judgement on something strictly by what the media is reporting.
There have been too many tragic cases in which people wrongly accused of some of the most horrific crimes, had their lives ruined by media broadcasting these false stories. When things like this happen, and the real truth is discovered, it is rare for the media to even bother covering it, or updating the public. They love headlines, or ratings and make money on them.
If this story is in fact true, and she is truly guilty, I agree with many things being said here.
It's hard to cause internal burns unless you use a microwave, though. Maybe she didn't do it. Maybe someone else did it. However, it was done via microwave, and I'd think that it would be easy to show that this is the only way most people are going to be able to do such a thing without other special equipment.