Disposable babies

Luis Sinco/LA Times

This is the dumpster where USC architecture student, Holly Ashcraft, threw away her baby.

According to the LOS ANGELES TIMES, the pretty and popular high achiever from Montana, "... was investigated -- but not arrested or charged -- in April 2004 after she arrived at a downtown Los Angeles hospital having just given birth but without a baby. She told authorities the child in that earlier case was stillborn and that she had disposed of the body on her own."

Make that TWO disposable babies.

Ashcraft has been charged with murder just for the one.

Two for the price of one.

It is a safe bet that Holly was a girl out of control, caught up in the orgiastic culture that prevails at college campuses all across the country.

"She went out and had fun," is how one of her friends described Holly. She obviously also went out and had sex. And she was no stranger to alcohol.

Holly's family and friends are understandably upset and at the same time completely supportive of her. "She is a distinguished and wonderful girl, and I am very proud to be her parent," Holly's mother reportedly told the TIMES. She didn't indicate how it feels to be the grandmother of two dead grandchildren, however.

Which brings me to what is most troubling about this admittedly tragic story. No one -- at least among Ashcraft's cadre of backers -- is troubled by the fact that Holly's baby who was born alive was left to die in a trash bin.

It's all about Holly who now sits in jail in lieu of $2 million bail. Her attorney, in true lawyerly fashion, is implicitly making the case that his client didn't really throw away a baby because the child was a few weeks short of being full term.

I am very sad for Holly Ashcraft. But it isn't all about her. There is also the innocent child who was robbed of his life and whose tiny body was thrown out with the garbage. Somewhere out there, too, is the father of that child. In fact, it's quite possible that there is more than one young man who is wondering, if he has any conscience at all, was that my baby?

And he must have been a beautiful baby.


Holly Ashcraft