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I think there's a legitimate difference between someone who thinks they're hearing the voice of god telling them to do something they don't want to do (like kill their kids) and someone who, say, kills their kid in a fit of anger or through willful neglect, or, say, someone who shoots another person in a robbery or something. These are qualitatively different. The woman's a loony, plain and simple. Did she understand right and wrong? I kinda don't think so. She knew it was wrong by human standards but thought it was ultimately right by divine standards. Granted, the bottom line is still that she bashed her kids heads in and can't be trusted around society, but is it because she deliberately makes choices that are in her own interest but counter to social mores, or because she's nuts in the head? I guess I don't really have an opinion on whether she should be declared "guilty" or not, but it seems like there's some kind of difference between someone who's deranged and someone who's just selfish and amoral, and that ought to be recognized somehow in the legal system.
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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France
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