Metamorphosis

There are direct cause-and-effect links between side effects and behavior, and as the Prozac Nation matures, one has to wonder where, how and why chemicals in our nation's collective bloodstream are going, and why these questions aren't being answered with more regularity, or sincerity.

The latest in a series of bizarre news items came in twin garb, as a woman, Patricia Pokriots, told authorities she had seen a bundle thrown from a moving car. Upon checking the package, which she claimed she had originally believed was an animal, she was horrified when she opened the package to find a newborn baby, its umbilical cord still attached.

Da horror.

What kind of human being -- if that term could be used to describe an individual who could actually perpetrate such an act -- could throw a baby, wrapped up in a bundle, from a moving car? What kind of nation were we to have, among us, someone who could actually do such a thing?

It actually turns out that Pokriots, under questioning from authorities, admitted she made up the whole story, and that the newborn, who is healthy and doing well, was never in any danger, except from his mother, apparently. Pokriots, 38, is the boy's mother and under Florida's "Safe Harbor" law, a mother can give up a child up to three days after the child is born with no repercussions.

Authorities are seeking to take custody of the newborn as well as investigating if there are charges which can be brought against Pokriots, was to be held in a psychiatric hospital for "observation."

Observation? Try "classification."

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, a nine-months pregnant woman nearly to term fought and killed another woman; apparently, the attacker, brandishing a knife, had prepared a nursery at her home and intended to kill her pregnant victim and remove the baby from the womb. The attacker, apparently, got the idea from a similar case in Missouri, in which a woman was strangled by a Kansas woman who cut the baby from her victim's womb and claimed it was hers; the woman's husband was as shocked as the rest of the country when her crime was reported.

The final third of this dysfunctional trio is the woman who, several years ago, drowned her children (all five of them) in a bathtub and called her husband to let him know what she had done, and subsequently called the police and advised them of her actions as well.

Can we blame a plethora of anti-depressants for these and similar stories? Whatever the cause, the aforementioned news items are beyond disturbing. Against the backdrop of the precious, fragile gift that is life, it leaves us asking what is wrong and whether it's getting better or worse.

Considering that this new low we've achieved is, clearly, "worse," perhaps instead we should be asking: what's next?