Mommy Dearest

  The news coverage surrounding the alleged murder of Caylee Anthony by her mother has turned the trial into a media circus, with folks offering speculation on whether or not the mum is guilty of murder or plain stupidity. 
 However, while we were watching the O.J. of our generation go down, a very real mother got away with the calculated murder of her own child. 


Yvonne Freaney is a 50 year old woman who resides near Cardiff, Wales. By her own admission, she strangled her 11 year old son named Glen to death with a coat belt in an airport hotel room. The woman killed her son because he was autistic and she didn't want to be faced with a lifetime of caring for him alone after a breakup with her abusive husband. 


The mother of 4 admitted to the crime even upon her arrest, declaring that "He was laughing when I was strangling him. That is when I knew he was happy.I had to do it because now no-one can point fingers at him. He is in heaven now.". Mrs. Freaney had strangled her son but made a fleeting attempt at cutting her wrists prior to her arrest for murder. 


In this case, the justice actually took pity on the woman, beginning with the statement  "You have already been punished enough." prior to permitting the woman to walk out of the courthouse with a supervision order. You see, if your kid is disabled, his or her life is not worth as much as that of one who doesn't need to speak through a computer, like Glen Freaney did. Time and time again, parents have taken the lives of their handicapped offspring and either walked or given huge diminished responsibility reductions in their sentences.


  Am I the only person who sees something very wrong about the idea that some people's lives are more valuable than others? Why has Yvonne Freaney been "punished enough" simply by virtue of the fact she had to "deal" with a son who has challenges? Her son was described as a warm, happy kid who could walk, run, ride a bike, and communicate. Glen Freaney was loved and the person who swore to protect him from harm choked the life out of him over a period of several minutes until he was dead. This was no accident, mummy dearest had at least 5 minutes to reconsider her actions and save her son's life. As for the suicide attempt, it's laughable- if Yvonne Freaney wanted to actually die, she would have hanged herself and died in the same quiet violence, terror, and panic that her son experienced. 


  Glen Freaney was a human being who didn't deserve to die simply to make his mum's life easier. In a socially-blessed nation like the U.K., she would have a multitude of options at her disposal, ranging from supervised relief care to surrendering parental rights without prejudice. 


  I have several friends and relatives who have physical, psychological, or intellectual variations from the established norms, and it's pretty damn clear that if someone killed one of them, I'd be calling for the defendant's head. The concept of the lives of the disabled as less important smacks of eugenics movements of the past where human beings could be lobotomized, sterilized, and even killed because of things like epilepsy and feeblemindedness. The concept that Yvonne Freaney is less guilty of murder because her child wet the bed smacks of Nazism.


  The murders of the disabled are often deemed mercy killings, but I see zero compassion in crushing a scared 11 year old kid's throat until he died. Obviously, there's nothing that can bring back Glen Freaney or anyone else killed by a parent, but shouldn't our sense of justice apply equally? 


  There are no second-class children, only substandard opinions of them.