A young woman was sentenced to life in prison for killing her newborn. Amanda Hein was found guilty of first degree murder in the death of her newborn son whom she smothered, put in a plastic bag, and then placed in a toilet tank at a pub in Lower Saucon Township, Pennsylvania.

I saw this letter which was sent in to a local newspaper:

What a sad situation. A young woman — isolated, afraid, depressed. Yes, she made bad choices and a final, very tragic one.

But is she such a threat to society that she deserves to be behind bars for the rest of her life? And where is the father — the other half who created this child? He is free to roam the streets with no cares, responsibilities or consequences for his actions — possibly impregnating other vulnerable women as we put Amanda Hein behind bars.

Another letter, published in the same paper, said:

What Hein did was wrong. No one knows that better than she. She will suffer for this horrific act for the rest of her life.

How is incarcerating her going to help anyone? I am not condoning what Hein did, but I cannot help but see how quickly she was rushed to trial and through our unequal legal system.

Isn’t there something wrong going on here. Isn’t there an undercurrent here of…”Hey, she just killed a baby and I’m not a baby so it’s not that bad. It’s not like she killed an actual person.”

*subhead*Human.*subhead*