Adoption, Facebook, and Incest...

Not the usual cheery topic like the topics of late. However, I was doing my daily rounds of the news and came across this story. It was disturbing, it was sad, and it was plain scary. It is also one of those stories that I read and find myself shaking my head and saying to myself, "What were you thinking?" There was probably some expletives in there as adjectives to enhance my disbelief.

The story is one of a young pregnant mother. The mother gives birth to a healthy baby boy who she then gives up for adoption. Now, if the story ended there then there would not be anything particularly interesting about that. However, the story gets a little disturbing from here on in. Some 14 years later the mother, Aimee L Sword decides to track down her biological son. Her method of choice the internet and, in particular, Facebook. Sword makes contact with her biological son and then grooms him for sex. She then has sex with the boy.

Now, I need to get a hold of the facts of the case. However, I am going to take a stab in the dark here and guess that she did not tell the boy that she was in fact his biological mother. The boy testified that they had sex on a number of occasions when he was just 14 years old.

The Detroit Free Press has reported that Sword's lawyer, Mitchell Ribitwer, stated the following about his client "When she saw this boy, something just touched off in her — and it wasn't a mother-son relationship, it was a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship".He then went on to say, "Aimee's searching for a reason why this happened. She can't understand it. She's going to get some counseling."

Not only is she going to get some counselling, she has been given plenty of time to think her actions over with a sentence of at least 9 years to be served.

The other interesting point is that she used Facebook to track this boy down. Facebook is an incredible networking tool that can be used for good and evil. This highlights the negative power of social networking.

As I said, what was she thinking? I really cannot fathom what would have triggered such a desire to track down your own biological child and then groom them for sex. I am still shaking my head!