Understanding the actions of Megan Huntsman.

In reality I am fully aware that I was asked for just a short summary of the news coverage on Megan Huntsman. Unfortunately I think it would be unethical to not give a fair amount of time to the overarching psychological issues that are embroiled within this one case.

The intent of this summary is to bring up some key factors relating to the case and how, more than a simple judgment or emotional response, defend my understanding that this case has many different angles of approach.

The first approach I would like to take to Megan Huntsman's crimes is the approach of news reporting, how we understand it, and how our initial emotional reactions, through availability heuristics, makes us arrive at quick conclusion that may or may not be correct.

When this story broke I noticed a few of the headlines from various news source. Each headline and in return each article somewhat mirrored each other with the limited facts of the case. These simply put, where that while cleaning the garage Megan Huntsman's husband had found a dead baby, wrapped in plastic, in the garage. The police were called and the officers found the deceased infant inside the plastic bag. The husband, Darren West, contacted his wife and asked about the dead baby. She admitted to her husband the baby was stillborn and placed in a box. At that point the police got a search warrant and discovered six additional bodies. All the bodies appeared to be infants. Megan Huntsman was detained and admitted that between 1996 and 2006 she gave birth to at least seven babies at the residence, and that all the babies, but one, were born alive. She further confessed to either strangling or suffocating the babies immediately after they were born (See attached Affidavit). After these f...

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... this incident really underlines some of the problems faced when making a diagnosis on a person.

The research show that up to 20% of women will experience a serious (major) effective mood disorder in their lifetime. This begs the question, “is there a way of responsibly attributing the true cause of postpartum or pregnancy disorders without knowing the entire psychological issues of Megan Huntsman throughout her lifetime? I think, in part, that if they are to search for any of these symptoms, they will also have to understand when they presented and what the duration is. In my opinion, this forensic approach to psychology seems very limiting.

In conclusion, I think that presented with the different layers discussed above, it is fair to say that there is no clear answer to why anyone should be so quick to bestow judgment on justice without knowing all the evidence.