[Skott]

http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2013/10/...-childs-death/

this is bullshit


"When active-duty soldier January Ritchie was transferred to an Army base in Hawaii in 2006, she was pregnant and under restrictions from a military doctor that prohibited strenuous activity. According to a federal appeals court, her supervising officers disregarded the restrictions and ordered her to engage in “battle-focused physical training,” refusing to let her rest even after she underwent emergency medical treatment.

The results were predictable: premature birth, after 5 1/2 months of pregnancy, of a son who survived for only 30 minutes. A wrongful-death lawsuit by Ritchie’s husband. And on Thursday, a ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reluctantly upholding a judge’s dismissal of the suit because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1950 Feres decision, shielding the government from liability for military orders that injure service members.

“This case reveals the injustice caused by the Feres doctrine,” Judge Dorothy Nelson said in a concurring appeals court opinion Thursday. But until the high court changes its mind or Congress changes the law, she said, lower courts are bound to follow the decision.

According to the lawsuit’s factual narrative, which the court said was uncontested, Ritchie, an Army specialist, was transferred from Missouri to Fort Shafter, Hawaii in 2006 with restrictions on her activities from an Army physician, who said she should not do any heavy lifting or take part in physical training.

In Hawaii, the court said, officers ordered her to pick up trash and engage in “battle-focused physical training,” despite her pleas. She underwent emergency cervical treatment in August 2006 to try to prevent premature birth, but the court said commanding officers ordered her back to work. The birth and death of her son, Gregory, took place 19 days later.

In response to her husband’s lawsuit, government lawyers invoked the Feres ruling, which prohibited soldiers from suing the government for injuries suffered during “activity incident to service.” The main rationale was that the armed forces’ internal disciplinary system could be damaged if judges were allowed to second-guess military orders.

The appeals court agreed that the Feres ruling applied to Ritchie’s case, because she suffered injuries — the pain of physical labor while pregnant, the emergency medical treatment and the premature birth — that culminated in her son’s death.

“A claim that military orders caused an infant’s wrongful death … derives from his mother’s military service,” Judge Jacqueline Nguyen said in the court’s lead opinion.

But she said the much-criticized Feres doctrine makes little sense in a case in which the Army disregarded its own regulations — the restrictions imposed by Ritchie’s military physician — and issued orders not to combatants in the heat of battle, but to a pregnant soldier on a stateside base.

“We can think of no other judicially created doctrine which has been criticized so stridently, by so many jurists, for so long,” Nguyen said. She cited a 1987 opinion by conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and joined by three other justices — one short of a majority — that called for the court to repudiate Feres.

But with the 1950 ruling still on the books, Nguyen said, ”we therefore regretfully hold that Ritchie’s suit is barred.”

[BBKF]

That is totally fucked up.

[rapeWhistle]

Apparently when you enlist you aren't only signing YOUR life away, but your offspring's life/lives as well.

[IC10021]

“We can think of no other judicially created doctrine which has been criticized so stridently, by so many jurists, for so long,” Nguyen said. She cited a 1987 opinion by conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and joined by three other justices — one short of a majority — that called for the court to repudiate Feres.

[icheerthebull]

I feel bad for the unborn baby but not the cunt mother. Did they put a gun to her head and force her to do said exercise? No! they stopped shooting people for disertion a long time ago so she can fuck off. I wonder if she had/has any sympathy for the thousands upon thousands of dead innocent children in Iraq or Afghanistan.

[Pyramid_Head]

The justice system...that is all.

[Faline]

[icheerthebull]

I am shocked and appalled that this story is not being lapped up by the media and the internet. If she was not in the army this site and the media would be crucifying this women. Fuck if she was a 15 year old many of you and the media would do the same.

If a women working in a factory or fuck it, lets say working in big mack, was heavily pregnant and told by her boss to, lets say, jump from a ramp and land on her stomach. and she did it. The world. and all of you. would be calling for her execution.

The stange thing is most of the people who would disregard such 'communist' ideas like workers rights, health care and benifits are the very ones commenting with anger on every website that is covering this story

[RealityUnfolding]

Actually, defying orders can lead to jail - and not just for a few days. It can lead to AWOL charges, etc.

The Feres doctrine has shielded TONS of doctors who otherwise couldn't practice. It's long been said if you can't hack it in the regular world, go be a doc on base somewhere. As a spouse, given the months of agony I endured until I finally got an off base referral that led me to surgery within a few days - I experienced the incompetence first hand.

[IC10021]

Her doctor failed.to protect her. Her doctor could have hospitalized her, no?
Maybe that.would have gotten her out of harms way. She should have been put on temporary disability. Hospitalized if necessary. I don't get why it wasn't within her power to claim physical or mental incapacity. Maybe that speaks to her incapacity itself?