INFANT LIFE IS SACRED
As the Supreme Court of Canada weighs the Meredith Borowiec case, it must rule on the side of justice for infants. The court will examine the infanticide verdict handed down to the Calgary woman who had three babies between 2008 and 2010, all of whom she threw into a Dumpster. Only the third was rescued and lived. Borowiec was not convicted of murder, which creates the unfortunate impression that the lives of newborn infants are not considered as sacrosanct as the lives of older individuals. Instead, she was sentenced to 18 months plus time served pre-trial, on an infanticide conviction. Typically, infanticide carries a maximum five-year prison term.
The Alberta government wants the Supreme Court to order Borowiec to stand trial again for murder and it says that the infanticide law is “vague, outdated and rife with problems.”
One of its chief problems, besides the lower value such a law appears to place on infant life, is that it treats new mothers as delicate, pliable creatures in thrall to hormones which can, on occasion, make them murderous. There is no denying postpartum depression is a genuine concern, but in Borowiec’s case, she simply didn’t want her babies and she threw them in the garbage. Moreover, if hormones had such an incredible power to override a woman’s moral convictions, one would have to wonder how the human race has managed to survive to this point, given how stressful it is to care for a newborn.
The law’s language is painfully antiquated, talking about a woman’s mind being “disturbed” from being “not fully recovered from the effects of giving birth” and also possibly because of “the effect of lactation.” In other words, breastfeeding kills. The Alberta government’s argument to the court will be that the law provides a “blanket” excuse for murderous new moms “regardless of their true moral blameworthiness.” The province suggests a clearer legal definition for proceeding to an infanticide conviction would be: “a woman has a disturbed mind if her psychological health is substantially compromised because she recently gave birth and has a newborn to care for.”
The Supreme Court can only clarify the law; it can’t strike it down. That is Parliament’s job — and it is something the federal Liberal government should do. Not only does the current law do a disservice to women by assuming them — in a manner reminiscent of the Victorian era — prey to some vague fluttering of hormones, but it does an even greater disservice to infants.
Their lives are no less sacred and precious than anyone else’s, and the law should treat them that way. Murder is murder.