Surely the burden of proof is on the prosecution?
I don't have a problem with this. If a child - even an unborn one - dies in mysterious circumstances, I would prefer the inconvenience of a fruitless investigation over the prospect of living in a society where we don't even care enough to ever be suspicious.
There is nothing mysterious about a miscarriage. They are common. According to the Mayo Clinic:
> Miscarriage is the sudden loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week. About 10% to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. But the actual number is likely higher. This is because many miscarriages happen early on, before people realize they're pregnant.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pregnancy-los...
Subjecting a person who is already upset about her miscarriage to a fruitless investigation is cruel and stupid; I’d prefer to live in a society where we understand that miscarriages happen as a part of nature and don’t need to further torment the people who suffer from them.
As I understand it, in this case, a witness saw a woman throwing a child's remains in a dumpster. After investigation, it was cleared as a miscarriage.
What would you prefer? We turn a blind eye to people disposing of bodies? Cops refuse to investigate such reports?
It sounds like everything worked as intended here. Of course it's unfortunate for the innocent woman involved, but this is clearly not a witchhunt.
This line of discussion inevitably boils down to what one's definition of a human life is and whether a fetus at a particular stage of development meets that definition.
Let's not have that discussion here on HN. It's not going to be fruitful.
For a conviction, yes, the burden of proof is on the prosecution. But in the meantime, you have to pay for a lawyer, and you will be sitting in jail for a year because they don't give bail for murderers. And as for the lawyer bills, the court doesn't refund you the money when you are found innocent, and it isn't going to be cheap, not for murder.
The process is the punishment.
So you want the state to investigate every single miscarriage?
Where did "mysterious circumstances" come from? I didn't see it mentioned anywhere in this thread...
Do you think a miscarriage is a "mysterious circumstance"? I can only assume so, given your response. That seems like the result of what could only be tremendous ignorance.