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The illnesses of both Marilyn Lemak and Andrea Yates have become battle cries for “personal responsibility.” To suggest that those with a severe mental illness should or would be able to learn from the convictions of these women is ludicrous.
As a mental health professional and a mother, I am, of course, horrified and saddened by these events, but I’m also appalled by the simplistic calls for accountability.
A “there but for the grace of God go I” attitude and an insistence of quality, adequate mental-health care in this country would be a much more appropriate response. Our current justice system and its definitions of sanity are inadequate for handling these cases.
