Death-obsessive society has influenced mothers

“Why do mothers kill?” was the question heading a June 19 Gazette article. Each year, about 200 women in the United States kill their children. How tragic. The only answer to why that psychologists have found is that, generally, mothers who kill their children are deeply troubled.

I suggest another possibility. Mothers who kill their children may unknowingly be influenced by our present culture's obsession with death as a solution to problems. In this arena, we cannot discount abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Abortion has become common and acceptable in our society. Every day in the United States, 3,500 unborn babies are killed when their mothers choose abortion. Do you read about these numbers in print media or hear about them on the radio, television or Internet? Rarely.

There is conspicuous discrimination in our laws regarding the killing of children. Mothers who choose to kill their children before birth go scot-free, thanks to the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling. However, mothers who kill their children after birth receive prison sentences.

How many potential doctors, teachers, ministers, scientists, musicians, statesmen, farmers and achievers of many kinds have been robbed of their lives before they were born? Do we care? Do we accept the fact that the gift of life comes from God? Or is human life only a happenstance to be destroyed as we choose?

Our choices make an indelible imprint, not only on individuals and families, but on who we are as the people of the United States.

Margaret Speers

Cedar Rapids