Truly heartbreaking

[LibraryGirl]

Truly heartbreaking

What, if for instance, she passed out drunk and her children were abducted, raped or killed? What if they found a lighter and matches and burned themselves to death, what if they ran out of the house and got ran over by a car??? I could go on and on. Passing out drunk when children are in your care is pure and simple, NEGLECT. That is putting it mildly. Of course she should face charges. Maybe she will dry out in jail and think about what her behavior caused for the rest of her life.

I do not give myself a pass because I was a drunk. I am not saying that I couldn't have done something horrible, even caused a death while I was drunk, but I didn't. If I had, I wouldn't blame anyone but myself, and I'd expect punishment by law.

Lg

[Supercrew]

Truly heartbreaking

If you have a drinking problem where you consistantly over drink you have to look at it as a morality issue. I think there was a post a few weeks back regarding a person cheating on their spouse but they were basically blacked out. I have driven before in a blacked out state, and I have awoken many times not knowing where I was or what I did. I could have easily burned down my house and killed everyone inside and would have never known if I did it.

So the question is can anyone really use drunkeness as an excuse? I used to argue the drunk driving thing all day long. How can you arrest me? I didn't know what I was doing.

The reality is most of us problem drinkers know for a fact that bad stuff happens when we drink. If that's the case then drinking for a person with a severe drinking issue is amoral, and should be punished to the full extent of the law. You might not have known what was going to happen but most of us know something is going to happen.

I feel bad for any mother who loses their child, but maybe she need to be made an example to let people know that drinking when you are a known problem drinker is the issue and the result will always have legal consequences if you are caught.

[LibraryGirl]

Truly heartbreaking

I will say this too. I got a DUI in 2000, and the shame and terror of that night never left me. No matter how drunk I got after that night, I never drove drunk again. I did, on a few occasions drive after 1 or 2 drinks, but 2 was my maximum. I'm not saying that's right either, but I never got in the car and tried to drive when I couldn't see clearly, like it is when you're drunk. I never got drunk enough that I couldn't realize that I couldn't drive. I don't believe people don't realize what they are doing when they get behind the wheel, no matter how pissed they are. I do think it sometimes takes a wake-up call, but I hate hearing people say they continuously get in the car and drive after getting drunk. There's no excuse. I'm sorry if what I'm saying is not popular.

[drinkingal]

Truly heartbreaking

I do get what others are saying but I guess my way of looking at things is yes if we drink and drive etc there has to be consequences such as a dui when we get caught. But sometimes the personal consequences are far greater than anything the law would hand down so charging someone who is now in a life altering situation seems superfluous and a bit cold. for example, if someone gets drunk and runs off the road hits a tree and ends up in a wheelchair for life, what good can it do to charge them with dui? These life altering type of consequences are so severe that life will never be the same so to add criminal charges on top is like putting the boot in when someone has already suffered consequences that have changed their lives forever, and if the point of criminal charges is to punish and deter, then in some cases where something so severe has already been the result, is that not punishment enough way beyond what the law could ever do to a person? Will it really teach someone a lesson to charge them when their life is now changed forever? If the result is losing a child or the use of your legs for example it's just not something that you can recover from, it's more than the inconvenience or shame of being charged, it will stay with you for the rest of your life and as far as adding charges as a deterrent or punishment it seems like overkill in some situations.

If you made a law that said that the punishment for getting drunk and driving or getting drunk and falling asleep was e.g. to lose a child or lose the use of your legs and if that was the legal punishment, that would be a pretty severe punishment (some would even say cruel and inhumane). I see two sides to it, yes they did they wrong thing, but they are still a human being who is dealing with the terrible fallout of their actions and being a drunk doesn't mean losing a child is any less painful, or being a drunk doesn't make losing the use of your legs any easier to deal with so I do feel compassion for people in these type of situations because even though most of us have paid some price for our drinking, people in these type of situations have really paid an incredibly high price.

[LibraryGirl]

Truly heartbreaking

The bottom line is this: She picked up the AL BEFORE she was intoxicated, KNOWING she had a child to care for, A THREE WEEK OLD CHILD, and she drank the whole bottle. She should never have had a child to begin with if she couldn't take enough responsibility to abstain from AL and other mind-altering substances. Many instances of murder (if not ALL) leave the murderer regretful and damaged for life because of their actions, but do I think it's enough punishment for them to have to live with regret and remorse? Hell no.

[drinkingal]

Truly heartbreaking

LG on an intellectual level yep that makes sense but how many of us have continued to drink in spite of the fact that our brains tell us it is doing harm to us and those around us for years and still don't stop? If it were that easy to say "this is bad, this is harmful, this might end badly so I'll just stop" forums like this wouldn't exist. Some people will drink even after they've pickled their livers and their own life is at stake so if it were that easy, we would just stop at the first sign of harm or trouble, but we don't because it isn't always that easy for us to do.

[KateH1]

Truly heartbreaking

drinkingal;1335091 wrote: LG on an intellectual level yep that makes sense but how many of us have continued to drink in spite of the fact that our brains tell us it is doing harm to us and those around us for years and still don't stop? If it were that easy to say "this is bad, this is harmful, this might end badly so I'll just stop" forums like this wouldn't exist. Some people will drink even after they've pickled their livers and their own life is at stake so if it were that easy, we would just stop at the first sign of harm or trouble, but we don't because it isn't always that easy for us to do.

No one here is claiming that Stopping Drinking is EASY....It is Not Easy, nor is it Instant. I know this first hand. Stopping the drink was the hardest thing that I have ever done. But to use the excuse that stopping drinking is "Not Easy" as an excuse to walk away from the consequences of our actions whilst drinking is simply that, an excuse.

One of the steps that has to be taken in order to get sober and stay sober is to take Full Responsibility for our lives and the consequences of our actions. Sometimes the consequences are "Legal Consequences", because we have broken the law. To imply that if the personal consequences are high enough, then we should be exempt from the legal consequences is absurd! This is not to say that those of us that think this was do not have empathy for the suffering. But this is a separate issue.

[nancy]

Truly heartbreaking

liability

This is a very sad story.
I think it doesn't matter whether her actions are understandable or whether you judge her personally. Of course she needs help and of course addiction for many people takes away personal choice at the time of drinking. I don't think that matters here though.

If you take someone else's life you are responsible, period. This is similar to drinking and driving and killing someone. I wonder if the victim was different if people might be less sympathetic. For example, a man who gets drunk, blacks out and beats his wife up.

By the way, it seems that it was another mother who did it twice.

[red67]

Truly heartbreaking

This case was on Nancy Grace the other night. This woman is a long term serious alcoholic who has been arrested 4 times for DUI and one of them with her kids in the car. She had plenty of chances for a wake up call. You can make a person go to treatment but if they dont want to make changes you cant force them. She had her chances to change, now her baby is dead. Yes she needs to be charged.