mother of autistic son convicted

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kristen labrie of lawrance massachusetts was convicted of attemted murder today.her son had cancer and she was acused of not giving him his cancer medicine the son who also has autism almost died.for more info go to bostonherald.com

i made a mistake i assumed that because she was convicted of attempted murder that the son lived,the son jeremy fraser died of non hodgekins lymphoma in 2009

the sentening hearing will be friday at 9am.she faces up to 20 years

Wow, what abuse. Did she do it because he was autistic, or because he had cancer, or both?


I sometimes can't help but feel good that someone is being punished. I know it's wrong, but I don't know enough to not feel that way. I feel sometimes that she deserves punishment.

im not sure what the motive was,it was live breaking news right out of boston i posted as the story broke live thats why i had to correct my self a couple times.i think the essex county,ma d.a's thought both autism,cancer and stress of being a single mom made her snap but i dont know for sure

She probably did that because her son was autistic, knowing the way that society works.

check bostonherald.com at about 10am boston,usa time which would be about 3pm gmt,that report will give more about the da or in england you would say crown prosocuter's theory of the crime

Don't believe the story.

I'd have to dig for it, but I believe she was denying the treatment to her son because of the harm it was causing him. Believe it or not, many doctors would choose a treatment with higher risk of mortality but better chance of no complications from the treatment than they would actually advise to their patients.

She had her reasons for not wanting her son on the treatment. Because he was autistic, she had to do what she thought was best for him, and typically, that means "What would I want if I was in his place?" The doctors did not agree with her choice and reported her for child abuse, but that was not their place. She was the caretaker and felt the proposed treatment was not in his best interest. She was not trying to kill her child (what I'm sure the prosecution wanted people to believe).

I work on the Oncology ward at the hospital I work at so I see a lot of families dealing with loved ones dying from cancer. I see this story more as a mother easing the suffering of her child. If its a stage 1 type of cancer than I don't see why she would do such a thing. But stage 4? Thats practically knocking at deaths door. There is no cure at that point and further treatments is only futile. I honesty don't see why cancer patients continue to live at that stage. Its awful.

I understand that it should be left up to the cancer patient about what kind of treatment they recieve and I understand why she would be arrested for making a life decision for him. But I also sympathize with her. The law is the law however.

There is not much factual available on the net regarding this. I am disturbed by the entire scenario. A single mother with a cancer stricken autistic child is under a huge amount of stress. Assuming evil intent or even neglect without knowing all the facts seems a stretch. Where was the support system for this family? How is it that the doctors failed to notice the chemo was not being administered? Chemo usually involves a series of blood tests and other monitoring to ensure side effects are properly managed. Was that monitoring also neglected? Should the health care system and social services agencies also be indicted for failure to properly educate and support this family? I see problems on many levels in this series of events. The tragedy of her son dying and her culpability are only part of the story.

your exactly right her defense argued she stoped the chemo because it did more harm than good.my post was strictly factual and was not and does not take sides with either party.i live in new england and follow boston news and when i saw this i thought it would be a good post,i was not my intent to criticize or defend just acuratly report

I was not leveling any criticism. Just offering my perspective. It is a very sad, sobering story.

This article gives more detail, She apparently stopped the medication in what would have been the final phase of the treatment because, she said, she "didn't want to make him any sicker". While she didn't have the right to do that, I think child endangerment or negligence, would have been a fairer charge than attempted murder.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110412/ap_ ... ion_denied

Like Wavefreak I also wonder why she wasn't getting more support from the medical community.

your probably right,luckily the state of massachusetts doesnt give life for only attepted murder,the most she can get is 20 years plus the child endangerment.i doubt she will get the full 20 for attempt murder 1 and the child abuse charge will go concurantly with the attempted murder.my guess she will do 8 or 10 years in actual time at the prison for women in framingham.if you have strong feelings on this you could contact the essex county,ma district attorney's office and ask for mercy at sentencing.the hearing will be friday at 9am