THE Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has expressed its shock over the Kemaman Magistrates Court’s decision to charge the 15-year-old girl who stabbed her newborn son with murder.
Magistrate Tengku Eliana Kamaruzaman had rejected the girl’s plea for bail, the girl’s lawyer Nurainie Haziqah had told Malay Mail.
On Feb 8 a newborn baby boy was found dead with stab wounds in Kemaman, Terengganu and the police had detained the mother, who is a rape victim.
Kemaman district police chief Hanyan Ramlan said preliminary examination found stab wounds on the left of the baby’s chest from a sharp object.
On this matter, MMA said that males and females who are survivors of sexual violence may experience mental, behavioural and social consequences.
“Girls and women who comprise a vast majority of the victims bear the extra brunt of reproductive consequences apart from experiencing the trauma of the sexual assault and risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections,” said association president Dr Koh Kar Chai.
According to Dr Koh, the health consequences of sexual violence or rape in girls and women are numerous ranging from reproductive health where they may suffer gynaecological trauma or unsafe abortions for example as well as mental health issues like depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder to name a few.
“As a result of rape, these survivors may start exhibiting high risk behaviours. Fatal outcomes of rape can include suicide, AIDS, murder during rape, killed for honour or even infanticide of a child born of rape.”
Dr Koh further pointed out that apart from the trauma of the rape, the victim has to bear the brunt of being pregnant and also face social stigma and backlash adding to her misery and thus increasing the risk of not just developing mental illness but also further pushing her towards unwarranted behaviours like infanticide.
He added that if the victim is already depressed during her unwanted pregnancy, the risk of developing postpartum depression is definitely higher.
“Why has the girl who is a rape survivor not offered the proper psychological support throughout her pregnancy?
“What horrors and stress must have accompanied this young girl throughout her pregnancy to make her commit infanticide on the day the child was born?” he questioned.
“We have seen cases where the rapist is usually allowed to go free for lack of evidence or because no report was made due to the social stigma which ends up with the lady who is the survivor of the rape being left to face all this on her own.
“There is a definite need to revisit the court’s decision in this case.” – Feb 16, 2022
