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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Can You Take Dead Babies Home In FFX County?
Posted by:
Legal?
()
Date: January 04, 2012 05:48PM
Is it legal to do what Rick Santorum did and take home a dead fetus to play with, sleep with and show to the kids?
In 1996, Rick Santorum’s wife Karen gave birth to a premature baby at 20-weeks. The couple then took the corpse, whom they named Gabriel, home to introduce “your brother Gabriel” to the other children.
“Your siblings could not have been more excited about you,” Mrs. Santorum wrote in her book, “Letters to Gabriel: The True Story of Gabriel Michael Santorum,” according to a New York Times magazine article on the matter. “Elizabeth and Johnny held you with so much love and tenderness. Elizabeth proudly announced to everyone as she cuddled you, ‘This is my baby brother, Gabriel; he is an angel.’”
To some, spending a few hours with a stillborn baby is an acceptable form of mourning, especially among people who view child rearing in religious terms, as Roman Catholic Santorum does. To others, like Fox News’ resident “liberal” Alan Colmes, such behavior is just plain “crazy.”
Remarking on Santorum’s recent surge in polls yesterday, Colmes guffawed, “Once (voters) get a load of some of the crazy things he’s said and done, like taking his two-hour-old baby who died right after childbirth home and played with it for a couple of hours so his other children would know that the child was real.”
Colmes’ comments definitely rubbed National Review editor Rich Lowry the wrong way, because Lowry immediately hit Colmes down.
Calling it a “cheap shot,” Lowry blasted Colmes: “To say it’s ‘crazy,’ something that’s that personal and harmful as losing a child, and to mock it, to mock him like that, is really beyond the pale and beneath you.”
Lowry also described Colmes’ comments as “contemptible.” “They lost a child, Alan. That’s very serious, and it’s not something you should be mocking on national TV.”
Colmes refused to buckle, though, and called Santorum’s an “unusual attitude,” saying, “I’m not mocking the losing of the child, but what I’m saying is I think it shows a certain unusual attitude to take a two-hour baby home that died to play with his other children.”
But Lowry was just as adamant in his position, and insisted that even “some of the dastardly characters we have in the mainstream media are not going to go as low as you just have, Alan, and make fun of that incident.”
As much as it pains me to admit it, I think I have to agree with Lowry on this one. It does seem a bit odd to me that Santorum and his wife brought the corpse home, but who am I — or voters — to judge how a family chooses to mourn? This seems within the realm of reason. Maybe having the parents stay at the hospital, away from the children, would have been more appropriate, but it’s not as if the family tried to raise the kid as if nothing happened. Now that would be crazy.
Apparently Colmes ended up having a change of heart, though, because he later called the Santorums to apologize for the “hurtful comment” and the Santorums accepted and now everything is hunky-dory.
In 1996, Rick Santorum’s wife Karen gave birth to a premature baby at 20-weeks. The couple then took the corpse, whom they named Gabriel, home to introduce “your brother Gabriel” to the other children.
“Your siblings could not have been more excited about you,” Mrs. Santorum wrote in her book, “Letters to Gabriel: The True Story of Gabriel Michael Santorum,” according to a New York Times magazine article on the matter. “Elizabeth and Johnny held you with so much love and tenderness. Elizabeth proudly announced to everyone as she cuddled you, ‘This is my baby brother, Gabriel; he is an angel.’”
To some, spending a few hours with a stillborn baby is an acceptable form of mourning, especially among people who view child rearing in religious terms, as Roman Catholic Santorum does. To others, like Fox News’ resident “liberal” Alan Colmes, such behavior is just plain “crazy.”
Remarking on Santorum’s recent surge in polls yesterday, Colmes guffawed, “Once (voters) get a load of some of the crazy things he’s said and done, like taking his two-hour-old baby who died right after childbirth home and played with it for a couple of hours so his other children would know that the child was real.”
Colmes’ comments definitely rubbed National Review editor Rich Lowry the wrong way, because Lowry immediately hit Colmes down.
Calling it a “cheap shot,” Lowry blasted Colmes: “To say it’s ‘crazy,’ something that’s that personal and harmful as losing a child, and to mock it, to mock him like that, is really beyond the pale and beneath you.”
Lowry also described Colmes’ comments as “contemptible.” “They lost a child, Alan. That’s very serious, and it’s not something you should be mocking on national TV.”
Colmes refused to buckle, though, and called Santorum’s an “unusual attitude,” saying, “I’m not mocking the losing of the child, but what I’m saying is I think it shows a certain unusual attitude to take a two-hour baby home that died to play with his other children.”
But Lowry was just as adamant in his position, and insisted that even “some of the dastardly characters we have in the mainstream media are not going to go as low as you just have, Alan, and make fun of that incident.”
As much as it pains me to admit it, I think I have to agree with Lowry on this one. It does seem a bit odd to me that Santorum and his wife brought the corpse home, but who am I — or voters — to judge how a family chooses to mourn? This seems within the realm of reason. Maybe having the parents stay at the hospital, away from the children, would have been more appropriate, but it’s not as if the family tried to raise the kid as if nothing happened. Now that would be crazy.
Apparently Colmes ended up having a change of heart, though, because he later called the Santorums to apologize for the “hurtful comment” and the Santorums accepted and now everything is hunky-dory.
Re: Can You Take Dead Babies Home In FFX County?
Posted by:
4 more years, II
()
Date: January 04, 2012 05:51PM
Isn't that just plain weird!?
A real head scratcher.
[I'm surprised he was ALLOWED to take the body home]
A real head scratcher.
[I'm surprised he was ALLOWED to take the body home]
Re: Can You Take Dead Babies Home In FFX County?
Posted by:
Bu Hoal
()
Date: January 04, 2012 06:36PM
In most states, a corpse becomes the automatic ward of the state until final disposition. That authority is often delegated to other parties such as funeral homes and and the like charge with the disposition. I am assuming that this occurred in Pennsylvania, but I don't care to look up that law in that state since regardless of the law this, if true, only serves to further illustrate that Santorum is an odd-ball and unfit for a position of leadership. I wouldn't vote for or against him on this matter since it does not clearly address his abilities. Rather is an indication of his stability, and to be fair, may have since changed. I will however hold him accountable for some of bizarre statements that he has made in the past. They include the following:
- a vow to bomb Iran upon taking office without considering the effect on the world oil market;
-being appalled at former candidates who supported separation of church and state
-a total inability to give the Obama administration credit for killing UBL
-wanting to penalize people who did not get out of NOLA during Katrina...without acknowledging the failed Federal response that stranded people there.
This guy is unstable - one of those politicians who speak without considering the logic of his words.
- a vow to bomb Iran upon taking office without considering the effect on the world oil market;
-being appalled at former candidates who supported separation of church and state
-a total inability to give the Obama administration credit for killing UBL
-wanting to penalize people who did not get out of NOLA during Katrina...without acknowledging the failed Federal response that stranded people there.
This guy is unstable - one of those politicians who speak without considering the logic of his words.