Mercy for the Sick

Re “Mom of Slain Kids Moved to Hospital,” July 22: I am saddened to read the tragic fate of Andrea Yates. The death of her five children is tragedy enough. Why must we be such a punitive, mean-spirited society?

Schizophrenic, suffering severe postpartum depression, believing she is possessed by Satan -- still, we hold this terribly sick woman responsible for capital murder because “she knew killing her children was wrong.”

A person who is that mentally afflicted cannot know anything in the same way a nonafflicted person can.

May those among us who need mercy find it -- even those who have judged and condemned Yates to jail and a depression so deep that she is willing herself to die. Ironically, our system will fight to keep her alive despite her hopeless, unmitigated despair. What is wrong with us?

Leah Sullivan

Pasadena