Who shares in the responsibility for these five deaths and possibly another? What about the hospital that sent a dangerously psychotic woman home? What about the doctor who inexplicably stopped Yates' anti-psychotic medication 13 days before this tragedy? What about the weak support system that left Andrea Yates, delusional and suicidal, alone with five young children? The health care system and the medical establishment failed all of them.

Will we take action before this story repeats itself?

This case is not an isolated situation. We desperately need research into the cause and treatment of postpartum psychosis and we need a health care system that doesn't cut corners when it comes to the mentally ill. These women and their families need full medical attention, complete information on the condition and its risks, assistance at home, and widespread public education. The warning signs were there with Andrea Yates and they will be there again for another woman-increased treatment and support could prevent a mental health crisis from turning deadly.

Prosecutors conceded that Yates was mentally ill at the time she drowned her children, yet the jury convicted her of capital murder, which could carry the death penalty. Unfortunately, the jury had to make their decision within the narrow framework of Texas law and as members of a society that has little understanding of mental illness in general and postpartum psychosis in particular.

In the sentencing phase of the trial, the jury must choose the death penalty or life in prison for Andrea Yates. In Harris County, Texas, where Yates was tried, more people are executed than in any other county in the U.S. NOW hopes that the jury will reject this barbaric trend by refusing to add another death to this tragedy.