Can you believe this?

Discussion Open Forum
1

It seems there is a woman in Salt Lake City,Utah who chose not to have a C-section performed upon her, even though she was told it was needed for her to do, so one of her “unborn twins… was stillborn.” Now this woman is charged with “one first-degree felony count of criminal homicide.”
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s … _charged_9

How can this be fair? In the USA, many woman have abortions and are never charged with a crime (which I agree with). However, this woman chose to ignore her doctor’s advice about having a C-section, the child died, and now she is in big trouble.
It seems to me that a doctor’s advice is just that, advice. Nobody should be forced to accept a physician advice. As a matter of fact, many people ignore the advice of their doctors, especially those doctors who tell their patients to quit smoking, drinking or overeating. So, this woman, while perhaps being foolish, should not be in any legal trouble.
Anyone else care to voice an opinion about this situation?

2

It seems to me the US legal system has a strange sense of personal responsibility. I think the woman made a poor judgement, but poor judgement does not equal to criminal act. Recently, a widow sued her late husband’s oncologist for not doing enough to help him lose weight and stop smoking. The man weighed over 400 lbs and smoked heavily and died of a heart attack. His doctor had documented on chart of frequent discussion on smoking cessation and weight loss, offered zyban to help him quit smoking and diet pills also. The jury decided to award the widow 3 million dollars! Was the doctor supposed to imprison the man to force weight loss and smoking cessation?