Vegan couple sentenced to life over baby's death

lovinwaves

New member
Vegan couple sentenced to life over baby's
Malnourished baby was fed soy milk and apple juice, weighed 3 1/2 pounds

ATLANTA - Vegan parents have been sentenced to life in prison after their six-week-old son died of malnutrition.

The baby weighed only 3 1/2 pounds. He’d been fed mostly soy milk and apple juice. Vegans typically do not consume animal products.

Defense lawyers had argued the first-time parents didn’t know the infant was in danger until minutes before he died in April 2004.

Jurors deliberated about seven hours before convicting the couple last week. Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas were convicted of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children.

deathhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18574603/
 
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scatterbunny

New member
:(

I don't know if I agree with charges of MALICE murder (never heard that term before?), because I don't really believe the parents wanted to hurt or kill their child. I think unfortunately they were uneducated about proper nutrition for an infant, obviously, and definitely do deserve some charges for now neglectful they were, but I doubt they intended to murder their child.
 

rlsadc

Senior Community Member
Vegan couple sentenced to life over baby's
Malnourished baby was fed soy milk and apple juice, weighed 3 1/2 pounds

ATLANTA - Vegan parents have been sentenced to life in prison after their six-week-old son died of malnutrition.

The baby weighed only 3 1/2 pounds. He’d been fed mostly soy milk and apple juice. Vegans typically do not consume animal products.

Defense lawyers had argued the first-time parents didn’t know the infant was in danger until minutes before he died in April 2004.

Jurors deliberated about seven hours before convicting the couple last week. Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas were convicted of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children.

deathhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18574603/

wow. well its the parents responsibility to know how to feed their child. and it is their responsibility to get this information. if the child was born in a hospital, which im assuming he was, she would have been told about proper nutrition.
 

lovinwaves

New member
Ok, going out on a limb here minus all the details, and facts in the case:

What if the parents *were* trying to kill the baby, and they thought if they did it this way then they wouldn't in get in trouble?

Could they have been in denial about the baby losing weight? My DS lost 3 pounds in one month when he was about 5 mths old. My Doc said he NEEDS to be supplemented NOW. I refused at first because I was "In Denial".

I can't even imagine what a 3 1/2 pound 2 month old looks like???
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Yeah, it's just really hard to imagine people being so totally incredibly out of touch. The fact that they are vegan doesn't mean much, but the fact that they are either stupid or evil DID mean a lot....to their starved, dead baby :(
 

BrookeSLP

New member
There was a similar case a couple of years ago. They couple had 4 or 5 children. Here is what they did:

Defense attorney Ellis Rubin pointed out that the other four children were raised on the same diet, and that Lamoy Andressohn stopped breast-feeding Woyah's 18-month-old sister, Rayah, at three months, just as she had Woyah, replacing the milk with a formula of wheat grass, almond and coconut juice.

Woyah died at 6 months weighing about 7 lbs.

more at this link.http://www.courttv.com/trials/andressohn/103105_ctv.html
 

lovinwaves

New member
Yeah, it's just really hard to imagine people being so totally incredibly out of touch. The fact that they are vegan doesn't mean much, but the fact that they are either stupid or evil DID mean a lot....to their starved, dead baby :(

Mentioning that they were vegan was irrevelant to the story IMO.
 

Splash

New member
Wow...
I don't know that I agree with a life sentence. In fact, I know I don't. Because people rape and murder and torture children and old ladies and still only get ten years. This is sad, this is horrible, but... it's...

I used to nanny for a family that fed the baby barley water mixed with whole milk and molasses. Apparently it's a scientology thing. This kid was... I don't know, ten months at the time I started with her (it was only temporary while their other nanny was out of town, I was there for six weeks) and small, but not dangerously small. Apparently that was ALL they had fed her since about three months old. They loved her, no doubt. But their "religion" told them that this is what they needed to feed her. Was it abuse? No. Neglect sure, but not abuse. And they whole heartedly believed that this was the healthiest option. I don't agree, but...

When Charlie was about... oh I don't know how old now, maybe 8 months... we started giving him goat's milk and rice syrup because milk and soy formulas weren't working and AJ had just gone on a TED and was not making near enough milk for him. So, goat and rice it was. We did a lot of research into it and decided that it was a safe option for him and the best option at the time. It worked fine. At about 11 months, we started giving him goat milk again, and still do to this day. What if he had gotten sick or died, should we have been in jail?

I also know that A LOT of people think that soy milk IS formula, especially powdered soy milk. I know it's required to say in 7 point font on the very bottom that it's not meant to be used as infant formula, but I know a lot of people don't see it. So they may very well have thought they were giving the baby soy formula.

It also depends on who these people put their trust in to advise them of their child's health. If they were seeing a quack naturopath who told them that the kid was fine, then why shouldn't they believe he was fine? If they posted something on MDC, someone would have told them that they were doing wonderfully and it's normal for vegan babies to be smaller. Breastfeeding advocates and formula makers even tell you that your baby is getting enough if he's making 8 wet diapers a day. No one ever mentions poop. So the kid could have been making 8 wet diapers a day and they thought he was fine.

I think life in prison is wrong. People do far worse things to their children and don't even get a slap on the wrist. Yes, the child is dead. But it does not sound at all intentional or evil. Just uninformed parents who didn't know what the heck they were doing who caused the death of a child that they probably loved very much. Give them some jail time, monitor them with the next birth, but don't lock them away forever. They're not a danger to society, and likely will feed their next baby formula religiously and take him to the pediatrician often (and social service involvement in subsequent children would be reasonable).
 

mominabigtruck

New member
I don't think that they were vegan was irrelevant. If it was just someone who starved their baby everyone would be all over them. But if its a vegan people act like they just didn't know any better or something. I'm sorry, but they're babies, not bunny rabbits, they need a little more then grass and some fruit to live on.
 

futuresoccermom

New member
This baby was born at home, the parents would not take the baby to the hospital(which happened to be like right across from their home)because they were "afraid of germs".

I truly do not believe these parents were in "denial". There have been doctors who have come out and said that even if this baby was only getting soy milk and apple juice, in large enough quantities, that the baby would not have died.

Mentioning they are vegan really is relevant, that was a major part of their(the parents) case as to why they did what they did. Obviously being vegan isn't an excuse to starve a child, but they were trying to use it as one.
 

amy919

New member
I'm not sure how I feel about the sentence. The bottom line is they killed their child, be it intentional or not. I'm not sure about the malice part, though. I do see Splash's point about murderers and the like, but I think their sentences are just not harsh enough.

As a parent, it is your repsonsibility to care for your child. They were negligent and abusive, as far as I'm concerned. 3 1/2 pounds? That's insane! They wouldn't have even let a newborn out of the hospital at that weight.

I can respect, even if I don't understand, people whose religious (or other) beliefs dictate how they care for their child, but this is crossing the line.

There has to be more to it than this. I just can't fathom how those parents could think that their child was fine. Common sense, for crying out loud, would tell you that there was something seriously wrong.

This just makes me sad and angry. That poor baby.

Amy
 

Melizerd

New member
I don't think it matters that they were vegan. What does matter is that they either didn't care enough or purposely didn't find out the information they needed.

They had no friends? They had never been to a doctor? No one EVER told them anything that would have helped them? I find it hard to believe that they were just that ignorant.

They should rot.
 

Erika Ruth

New member
My Mother in Law made organic home formula for my husband when he was a baby, but she worked really hard to find a recipe that created the proper balance of nutrients. But, it does take A LOT of work. It wasn't Vegan by any means.

I didn't read the original article, nor do I know anything more about the case, but I am pretty SURE that their must be more to the case than is presented to us.

Erika
 

KissTheCook

New member
IMO they weren't "vegan". They were just plain "stupid" :rolleyes:
While I don't think vegan is the optimal way to nourish any human body, most people I've known who are vegan have been VERY educated both about their food choices and in general. Obviously not the case here. In fact, I'm not completely convinced that it (saying they were vegan) wasn't just the lawyers trying ANYTHING to save their dumb butts.
And supposedly, she was "somtimes" breastfeeding the baby, which just adds to the stupidity. I mean, if you're not breastfeeding because you're vegan you just DON'T do it. If you think that breastfeeding isn't violating your vegan beleifs then whip out your boobs and feed that poor baby.
 

rachel3612

Senior Community Member
Being vegan is the reason it happened, breastmilk is an 'animal' product according to them so they couldn't nurse and they couldn't use formula so they made up their own. They were uneducated, the baby was born at home and never saw a dr, so there was no one to take the baby away. The baby died because the parents were stupid. They don't deserve life in prison but they do deserve to have child services involved in their lives if they have any more kids. Life in prison will prevent them from ever doing it again though.
 

Erika Ruth

New member
Okay, it MAKES NO sense that breastfeeding would not be acceptable to ANY vegans. My Father in Law was a fallen fruit guy for a while. (Yes, he got really skinny)

But the point is taking something from an animal WITHOUT consent. Would they not let a baby pup suckle from its mommy dog? Breastfeeding is WITH consent (sometimes begrudgingly in the middle of the night for the 5th time, but it IS with consent.)

Erika
 

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