Convictions affirmed against vegans in child death

The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the murder convictions and life prison sentences given to an Atlanta vegan couple who were charged with allowing their baby to starve to death. Prosecutors said Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas, who lived a vegan lifestyle and ate no animal products, were living in the city's Buckhead neighborhood when Jade gave birth to their son, Crown Shakur. In April 2004, authorities said Crown died at 6 weeks old, emaciated and weighing less than four pounds. Authorities said the child died of bronchopneumonia due to extreme malnourishment or starvation. Police said his diet consisted only of soy milk and apple juice.

Good on the court! Letting your child die malnourished because you refuse to give them anything but apple juice and soy milk is horrifying to me. I hope vegans out there reading this take note and make damn sure they actually give their children the nutrition that they need. I'm not blaming vegans, obviously this was a rare case but I hope you at least follow doctors orders when feeding your children. These idiots just traded their babies life for a cows.

Wanted to add that I misread the child's age as 6 months so the story seems even stranger now.

link

reply to post by Domo1



A child cant eat meat at 6 weeks old...

reply to post by TsukiLunar


Yes but the mother should have been breastfeeding her child.

This was very very irresponsible, while I don't know if murder is the proper conviction (I would have thought manslaughter a more proper charge, but I dont know the details of the case). Always listen to people in child care, my mother has been a midwife for years and she would never recommend a vegan diet for a child.

Women produce milk for a reason

I will have to go back and read the whole article, but from your snippet, I must be missing something. It said the baby was only 6 weeks old. At that age, a diet of formula, and water or fruit drinks sounds right to me. Some babies are allergic to lactose and are given soy milk to drink. My daughter could not tolerate regular formula
and I was instructed to give her soy formula. They make several substitute formulas for lactose intolerant babies.
I apologize if I missed something in the article.

Also, lots of mothers chose not to breastfeed or can't. How does being vegan have anything to do with it?

reply to post by Domo1


Do you have a link to that article. It just seems odd that the parents didn't agree to breast feeding. That would have been better than formula and consistent with their views.

At 6 weeks he should have been on breast milk.

Does breast milk not fit the vegan lifestyle?
How does it get any more natural than that?

reply to post by virraszto


LOL I think I'm the one who missed something. I misread it as 6 MONTHS old not 6 weeks. Different story and now I'm a bit confused too. 4 pounds though, damn. I was almost 9 when I came out.

as infants my sister and i were both allergic to milk, its genetic i think. but anyway we only had soy milk, and were very healthy otherwise.

the point is, soy milk never killed anyone, the parents just starved their child.

Originally posted by Openeye
reply to post by TsukiLunar

 

Yes but the mother should have been breastfeeding her child.

This was very very irresponsible, while I don't know if murder is the proper conviction (I would have thought manslaughter a more proper charge, but I dont know the details of the case). Always listen to people in child care, my mother has been a midwife for years and she would never recommend a vegan diet for a child.

Women produce milk for a reason

edit on 12-9-2011 by Openeye because: (no reason given)

I will concede to you on those points. Breast milk is the best nutrition for the child. However, I have seen kids being raised off soy milk before as well. It is good enough to carry them to solids from my experience.

My daughter was born 4 lbs full term. She was lactose intolerant and drank soy milk ( Prosobee? I think ) the whole time she was on formula. At one year, she weighed only 12 lbs. She was just a small baby, but perfect otherwise. No health problems at all. She's an adult now, but she's still small.

The lack of nourishment and vitamins are the already a big drawback on the vegan lifestyle. These people themselves are playing roulette with their lives as it is. Body fat that is way under the levels of a normally healthy person as it is these aren't prime conditions in which to carry a child. The phrase "eating for two" has alot of truth to it. How can a vegan hope to have a normal healthy baby when one is barely keeping a pulse to begin with. Vegans have tons of adverse health effects from their diet as It is. These pregnancies often produce underweight babies with compromised immune systems.

This in my opinionwas the largest contributing factor in the child's death.

Since they dont have vegan baby formula and the woman wasnt breastfeeding this ammounts to child neglect.

Man doth live on soy milk alone.

In my humble opinion

Humans = Omnivores

Vegans = Herbivore

Paranoid Conspiracy Theorist = Enlightened Human

Maybe

seems to me the issue is being distorted by the media/police into an attack on the vegan lifestyle.

only of soy milk and apple juice

the word "only" implies that a 6 week old baby should be sucking marrow out of chicken bones or something, when, as many here have pointed out, it is perfectly normal and healthy for a baby to have these things.

the ACTUAL case is about the parents neglect.. obviously there was something wrong with the baby. and after losing ANY weight at all it should have been taken to the hospital to be checked out.. but wasnt. THAT was the crime, nothing else.

this vegan angle is nothing but sensationalism.. or worse, yet another attack on the public's right to take care of themselves. i have the notion this should be stacked up there with the recent attacks on people growing their own food, and the attacks on organic food.

the govt/media want us all to do things the same way and think the same so we can be easily controlled.

my two cents.

reply to post by BohemianBrim


I agree with your analysis. After realizing the kid was only 6 weeks my opinion changed quite a bit. Does seem like the article is just playing up the vegan angle for views.

Originally posted by metaldemon2000
The lack of nourishment and vitamins are the already a big drawback on the vegan lifestyle. These people themselves are playing roulette with their lives as it is. Body fat that is way under the levels of a normally healthy person as it is these aren't prime conditions in which to carry a child. The phrase "eating for two" has alot of truth to it. How can a vegan hope to have a normal healthy baby when one is barely keeping a pulse to begin with. Vegans have tons of adverse health effects from their diet as It is. These pregnancies often produce underweight babies with compromised immune systems.

This in my opinionwas the largest contributing factor in the child's death.

i'll give you the baby, but adult vegans can get complete nourishment. saying that they are "barely keeping a pulse" is just ignorant. i'll assume you either don't know any vegans or the ones you do know are the trendy hipster ones who have no clue about nutrition. i'm not going to get into a debate about nutrition because there's plenty of info out there(and dont try to throw in the b12 thing). this is about stupidity and/or neglect.

i did a quick search for another source and found this which goes into more detail without the an anti-vegan angle.

Police found a soy milk carton, an apple juice bottle and a filthy baby bottle in the couple's apartment. At the 2007 trial, prosecutors said the soy milk cartons in the couple's apartment clearly stated on the packaging that it was not to be used as a substitute for baby formula. They also told the court the couple had neglected their child on purpose, refusing to seek medical help despite their son weighing the same as a foetus seven months into a normal pregnancy. They were convicted of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children.

news.ninemsn.com.au...


the crime isnt being vegan, the crime is being #### parents.

reply to post by Domo1

Good on the court!

There is nothing good about it. A child died and a mother and a father lost their child through ignorance...

Nothing good..



may the child rest in peace...

kx

I have to agree with some comments that others have made, theres more to this than just the vegan lifestyle. Hell, where are all the dead vegan babies, if that was the cause.?
I have to say though, i dont understand why the mother wasnt feeding the baby herself, the experts say that cows milk formula is almost as good as breast, but soy milk? I dont think ive have taken the risk if i was a vegan. And i dont know about anyone else, but breast feeding can be hard, its not all glowing smiling woman suckling bonny babies,it hurt me like hell for two months, but i carried on as long as i could.

reply to post by homeskillet


I'm assuming that the people with the baby in this article were of the trendy Hipster type. Yeah I do know some who have their so called nourishment but I'm willing to bet that most vegans clearly don't know squat and are just being trendy as you said.

Either way to be pregnant and vegan is not recommended by most doctors