Maria Santiago Research Paper

According to the National Children's Alliance more than 700,000 children are neglected and abused. Maria Santiago is one of the few children who was neglected and abused at a young age. Thus allowing the cycle to continue towards her own child. Her father had abandoned her at the age of 10, while her mother often physically and emotionally mistreated her from the day she was born. As she grew up, Maria strayed from the right path and went downhill from then on. Later on in her life, she had a child named Allison, who eventually ended up dying at the age of 6 months. I believe that Maria Santiago is guilty of Aggravated Manslaughter of a child.
To begin with, Maria Santiago is guilty because she was reckless and irresponsible. According to Elizabeth Santiago, “Maria had a drinking problem and she even drank while she was pregnant.” This is coming from Maria’s own mother, showing that she did not even consider the child’s well-being.

According to Dr. Arthur J. Barnes, “Maria has been suffering with depression all of her life leading up to the arrest.” I think that since her father left her as a child and her mother constantly abused her, that she had no choice but to turn to drinking and partying. Going through that everyday would make anyone very depressed. Dr. Barnes also states that ”a new mother might have a mild depressive symptoms, be teary for no apparent reason, or even have anxiety attacks or feel irritable and moody.” I feel that if she had any depressive symptoms, that she could have gone to a support group that could have helped her deal with what she was going through. Even though Maria was suffering from depression,”she clearly knew she was the baby’s mother and she understood that a baby needed regular feedings and that the baby relied solely on her for her welfare” Dr. Richard Rankin stated. So even though she had depressive symptoms, she still needed to do her motherly