I won't call it understandable at all, and I can sympathize with almost anybody no matter what they've done under the right circumstances.
"Understandable" as in knowing the nature or character, not as you interpret the word to be synonymous with 'excusable". As I wrote "(I)t is horrible but understandable,especially since the home is likely a dysfunctional one . . . " Thus, given the nature of the circumstances in the home ( a history of violence including the discharge of weapons inside the home, violent altercations and substance abuse) and the character of the caregiver (mother reportedly prone to violent outbursts) it is understandable, almost predictable, that the most vulnerable person in the home would become victim of violence up to and including murder. IMO.
The problem isn't Aleah, nor is it any of the hundreds of disabled people murdered by those they put their trust into. Disabled people are not burdens, nor are crimes against them that violate the sacrosanct trust and love between carers and carees ever justified or understandable. The social acceptance of these murders simply contributes to terrible attitudes towards disabled people, the most vulnerable of all groups on this planet today.
I know the problem isn't the young lady or any of the disabled people murdered by caregivers. That is a given. The people are not burdens, I didn't say they were, but the situation is indeed burdensome. "Burden" is defined as 'a heavy load of work, care". It is without question that caring for a disabled person 24/7/365 is a heavy load of work and care. No one suggested that there is 'social acceptance' of these murders. No murder that I am aware of is socially accepted.
I understand caring for a severely disabled person is stressful, and I understand society isn't set up to accomodate the disabled (as someone with milder but very noticeable disabilities since birth, I'm all too aware of that). The answer to those problems is not murdering someone and justifying it because they were a 'burden'.
Sanger and Hitler are the only people I have heard of who thought that killing the disabled was society's answer. I surely didn't suggest such a thing. Understanding the circumstances that lead to the murder of a disabled person is not the same as justifying the murder and I did not imply it was. We, as a society, prosecute the murderers of the disabled as we do any other murderer.
(...also, how many of those 60% of caregivers were adults caring for their children? That statistic loses a lot of its punch once you consider that the majority of parents in the Western world will die before their children will.)
