If our culture doesn't value life, how can we punish infanticide?

Over the weekend, People magazine reported Brooke Richardson, an 18 year-old who just graduated from an Ohio high school, and who was a “very good girl,” was charged with reckless homicide after her baby’s remains were found buried in her backyard. Detectives believe the infant was not stillborn at birth.

It’s possible the young woman who volunteered at cheer camp and with children with disabilities is a closet psychopath, but it’s more likely Richardson has been inundated her whole life with mixed messages from our culture about the value of life. And so when she had a baby at the age of 18, was unable (or unwilling) to value the child enough to at least turn to someone for help and make a better choice.