Have you wondered why the jury in the Kermit Gosnell multiple-baby-murder trial in Philadelphia is taking such a long time reaching a verdict?

This may be the real reason why:

For most of us, the death of a child is just about the most tragic event we can imagine.

The Sandy Hook massacre was so overwhelmingly gut-wrenching because the victims were mostly young children. Likewise, news reports about the Boston Marathon bombing emphasize the fact that, of the three people killed, one was an 8-year-old boy – as if to highlight the uniquely great loss of a child.

In the world of crime, one of the most incomprehensible acts is baby-murder. We’re outraged at the widespread sex-selective infanticide of newborn girls in China. And recent headlines like “Georgia boys face murder charges after cold-blooded killing of infant being strolled by mother” and “Black teens murder white baby for the fun of it” cause us to shake our heads and wonder, How could anyone possibly sink so low as to kill a baby?

Many murders of babies – in fact almost half, according to the Justice Department’s National Criminal Justice Reference Service – occur within the first 24 hours after birth, so-called “neonaticide.”
Of course, appalling crimes like these have always have been a part of life in this fallen world – a world of good and evil, of decent and indecent people, where moral outrage is kindled within all good souls by the murder of the innocent.