Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton charged 40-year-old Damien O'Brien and his wife, 41-year-old Jessica O'Brien, with second-degree murder following the death of their 7-year-old son Casper. The boy was 50.5
I don’t necessarily mean to defend the parents because I don’t have enough information, but as others have mentioned, maybe they were too poor to see a doctor. Are we sure the child didn’t have a rare disease like Prader-Willi syndrome? Our society (and social media) are too quick to judge others based upon limited facts and context. Just saying.
Leyton said the father has a good job and the family has real health insurance. The morning the child died, they even called their veterinarian to have their dog treated.
“None of these kids even existed in the eyes of the government. CPS had never been out there, nobody knew about these kids, they had not been to school”
They need to do a karyotype before charging the parents with murder. Think about how hard it would be to get a 7 year old to eat enough to weigh 255 lbs. I’m not denying they’re not negligent but if the child has Prader-Willi you think they should still be charged with murder?
Yes, they should still be charged with murder. Any reasonable parent will see their kid gain so much weight and wonder if there’s something wrong with the kid and take them to get checked by a medical professional.
The child was only taken to see a doctor once in his entire life. Even if there is some rare disease causing the extreme weight, that’s still a lot closer to abuse than it is to neglegence.
I came here with your very point in mind, and then I read this sentence from the article:
Leyton said the father has a good job and the family has real health insurance. The morning the child died, they even called their veterinarian to have their dog treated.
This seems to be a clear case of medical willful neglect. If my kid was that big, (assuming I was feeding him healthy food,) I’d be at the DRs wanting DNA tests, getting a nutritionist, enrolling my kid in activities they like where they can be physically active. My niece has had feeding difficulties now that she’s been switched to solid foods, she’s underweight, and my sister is working with pediatricians and psychologists to determine if the insane pickiness is being caused by her being on the spectrum. I have a PhD in neuroscience, and based on the time spent with my niece she had clear behaviors that indicated she might be autistic/autistic adjacent like repetitive speech, severe introversion, and hiding when she is overstimulated/stressed. I was the first one telling my sister and brother in law to get her baby checked.
If the child had been going to school, a teacher or school official could have dropped the dime to CPS if they thought something was wrong.
I don’t necessarily mean to defend the parents because I don’t have enough information, but as others have mentioned, maybe they were too poor to see a doctor. Are we sure the child didn’t have a rare disease like Prader-Willi syndrome? Our society (and social media) are too quick to judge others based upon limited facts and context. Just saying.
The information you are lacking is in the article you are commenting on.
They need to do a karyotype before charging the parents with murder. Think about how hard it would be to get a 7 year old to eat enough to weigh 255 lbs. I’m not denying they’re not negligent but if the child has Prader-Willi you think they should still be charged with murder?
The child died in November of last year. They waited until now to file charges. I’m guessing it was to ensure they had all the facts.
Yes, they should still be charged with murder. Any reasonable parent will see their kid gain so much weight and wonder if there’s something wrong with the kid and take them to get checked by a medical professional.
The child was only taken to see a doctor once in his entire life. Even if there is some rare disease causing the extreme weight, that’s still a lot closer to abuse than it is to neglegence.
I came here with your very point in mind, and then I read this sentence from the article:
This seems to be a clear case of medical willful neglect. If my kid was that big, (assuming I was feeding him healthy food,) I’d be at the DRs wanting DNA tests, getting a nutritionist, enrolling my kid in activities they like where they can be physically active. My niece has had feeding difficulties now that she’s been switched to solid foods, she’s underweight, and my sister is working with pediatricians and psychologists to determine if the insane pickiness is being caused by her being on the spectrum. I have a PhD in neuroscience, and based on the time spent with my niece she had clear behaviors that indicated she might be autistic/autistic adjacent like repetitive speech, severe introversion, and hiding when she is overstimulated/stressed. I was the first one telling my sister and brother in law to get her baby checked.
If the child had been going to school, a teacher or school official could have dropped the dime to CPS if they thought something was wrong.