It's stressful to raise any child. Just because one is disabled doesn't give a parent the right to kill them.
More commentary about the sympathetic treatment of child-killing parents is here and here.
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And it ain't just in the United States that disabled people are treated like chattel. This outrageous judicial decision in Korea has generated a storm of protest, as it should:
On Nov. 20, the Cheongju District Court convicted a grandfather and three uncles of a teenage girl of sexually molesting her from August 2001 to May of this year. But Judge Oh Jun-keun handed down a three-year suspended sentence to the 87-year-old grandfather and two uncles, 57 and 42, for raping the now-16-year-old girl, who has mental and developmental disabilities.
Another uncle, 39, was given an 18-month suspended sentence. Judge Oh said his involvement was relatively minor.
“It is inhumane for the accused to have repeatedly violated the young victim, who is their relative, by treating her as a tool to release their sexual desires,” Judge Oh said in his ruling. “It is necessary to hand down serious punishment taking into account the victim’s grave mental state.”
The judge, however, said he showed leniency because the relatives, not the parents, have raised the victim despite economic hardship.
“Taking into consideration her disabilities, she needs continuous support and help from the accused, who are her family members,” the judge ruled. “Some of the accused are aged and ill, so it is difficult for them to endure prison life. Therefore, I suspend their prison terms.”
The judge himself ought to be in jail.
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