Geez Mike, thats so sensitive and classy of you to delete any blog that flames another, yet you post a blog "With Leather" that has many dead baby jokes within its content.
Nothing like some good dead baby jokes to lighten the severity of a very sensitive grave situation.
We sure wouldnt want to defame a blogger,but posting dead baby jokes seems to be okay. I wonder about your priorities

The headline could be taken as poor taste, but if you RTFA you'll see they don't make jokes about it - in fact the first line reads "Put away your funny hats for a moment, kids, because this one's a little bit darker than usual." In fact, the authors ends the piece with this "I know I take some controversial stands here at With Leather, but I want it known that I'm definitely against murdering babies. In fact, I'm more against baby-killing than rape." Where are the jokes?

One thing is true and that is this is a polarizing issue. No one seems happy with what anyone has to say on this. You have those who think this can be explained away and others (myself included) who think this child's murder needs justice. I don't believe in the death penalty but what this woman did is inexcusable. She should serve a long life sentence for what she did--and what she did is murder her living, breathing child. If the facts come out any differently then I'll recant but as a rational, thinking adult, the facts point to a premeditated, cold-hearted killing.

As awful as this crime was and my absolute objections to abortion, and my belief in the death penalty, we need to stop and take pause. I can't help but have compassion for this young woman. In my gut I feel that she may have had a mental collapse and didn't really realize what she was doing. She's in the age group when schizophrenia strikes young adults. I've seen several young adults stricken with this awful mental disorder and it is not a pretty thing. This young lady as well as her dead child are in my prayers.

I beg to differ. She didn't have a "mental collapse." She didn't go to bed unpregnant and wake up at full term the next day! She knew that she was pregnant for most, if not all, of the gestation. She researched various ways to kill the baby. What she apparently DIDN'T research was how to tell the father about the pregnancy, or the countless resources for counseling and support, or the many options she had, including adoption.

I'm a married woman who's spent three years dealing with "unexplained infertility." There are thousands of other women in this city in the same boat: we can afford to raise a child, but can't seem to produce one of our own. It cuts us to the core every time we see parents treating their children poorly, because we see them taking for granted a gift and a privilege, NOT a right, to which we've inexplicably been denied access.

This young lady doesn't deserve my sympathy, my empathy, my compassion, or any of the other feelings I reserve for fellow humans who are suffering from situations beyond their control. She selfishly plotted, schemed, lied, misled, and, ultimately, murdered to hide a secret. How proud the Catholic Church must be.

Hmmm....Cathy...your comment regarding the Catholic Church negates any rational points you may have made.

I am a Catholic. I am anti-death penalty. I am pro choice. I am extremely liberal yet glad to be Catholic. That being said, I have no sympathy for Teri Rhodes. She was not some little 12-year-old...she was apparently very intelligent...she studied biology, for God's sake. Life is full of very difficult choices. She CHOSE to do an absolutely horrific thing to an innocent baby. She needs to go to prison. Sorry if that seems harsh, but that's how I feel.

@m. ann: there's nothing harsh about wanting this woman to go to prison. She committed murder and for that, we send people to prison.

As for the comment by 'cathy' regarding the Catholic Church, I think it was made in reference to the fact she went to a Catholic college--Mercyhurst. Of course, that would also mean that the Church had some sort of screening process in place to weed out these bad seeds, which is simply a ridiculous assertion.

Everyone feels they have the right to comment about Teri as if they know her. I do. She is a friend of mine. And I also worked with her. She is one of the most caring people I know. The circumstances surrounding what has happened have angered many people. I believe that there have to be things about this case that we do not yet know. She is not the type of person who deserves death or the monster people call her. It is easy to judge her for the crime. However, there has to be something that we don't yet know. Maybe she was raped, too young to have an abortion, or just terrified because of her Catholic faith.

Lindsay, I can appreciate that you're a friend of Teri and know her better than the rest of us, but why do we have to personally know her in order to make an observation about her behavior. A rational person can objectively observe the facts and conclude what she did was not only wrong but seriously evil (i.e., murder).

I also don't understand how her being raped, being too young to have an abortion, or being terrified of her faith justifies murdering an innocent human being. Your logic in this regard completely escapes me. And as far as her Catholic faith is concerned, I'm quite sure the Church teaches that murder has far greater consequences than having a child out of wedlock.

It seems to me, those defending her are searching for an answer in order to justify or even understand why something so heinous--the murder of a newborn baby--would be committed, especially by the child's own mother. In instances like this, I don't think we can understand or explain away but I also don't think we should sweep it under the rug.

What continues to bother me is that this woman actively planned to kill her infant. She had nine months to decide what to do and she apparently spent that time concealing it from people so to hide the evidence, as well as researched how to end the child's life.

I often wonder why we can't go back to justice in The Code of Hammaurabi. An eye for an eye. We ought to do nothing less to Ms. Rhodes than wrap her in a plastic bag and lay her under a running shower. If she doesn't choose to die, then all the better: neither did her daughter. I am a mother of two. When my youngest (my 4 year old daughter) was born, she almost suffocated shortly after birth. It was absolutely the scariest 5 minutes of my life, praying frantically as the doctors got her breathing again. I can't imagine intentionally inflicting this on a helpless, innocent, miracle. I may be a practicing Catholic, but an eye for an eye, or as it is the case a life for a life is the justice I would like to see here. There are millions who would have given their right arm to adopt, raise, love and spoil that child every day of her life...instead she was given 10 minutes of life followed by horrific torture. No one deserves to live after an act of such awful measures.

She should suffer a lifetime in prison, if not more. Her tubes should also be tied so she can not experience the true happiness of being a mother. Her lawyer stated that, "Certainly we hope that no charges will be filed in this case. She is an 18-year-old kid. This has been hard on her." Last time I checked one is an adult at the age of 18, not a child.

I don't know Teri, but I had a friend in high school who suddenly disappeared. I learned much later that this girl, who was an excellent athlete, and top scholar, had committed suicide, choosing "the sin of suicide, over the sin of murder", as she was pregnant. This girl too, had it all...but yet had nothing. We put so much pressure on these young overachievers, especially in the Roman Catholic denomination. I don't think Teri is a horrible person, I think she was placed in a horrible situation, and did not have the coping skills to deal with it. Technically an adult, but I'm sure emotionally, very much a child. Don't be so self-righteous about what you would do in a given situation unless you have been there. Look back WW II...my mother was raped by Russian soldiers - I'm sure many of them left wives and girlfriends and perfectly normal lives at home...and I'm sure that they went home and resumed that normal life....there are millions of instances of people making poor, ill-informed choices. Be merciful on Teri, and help her recover, and grow into a contributing member of our society.

Hilde - You disgust me. An excuse for everything. She MURDERED her own baby. What about that can you not get through your thick skull? Roll up her sleeve and stick a needle into her.