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Comment by samwillis | Hacker News Reader

> Elizabeth Holmes purposefully went on to get pregnant, just to garner empathy

No one knows that, and it's a disservice to humanity to push this narrative.

She committed crimes, and is being rightfully punished. That doesn't mean as a human she looses the right to have a family. I imagine facing a very long stretch in prison that will take you past the point where it's possible to start a family motivates you to consider starting one.

But that's not to say it was a "good" or moral choice for her to make - I feel for any child who parents are incarcerated.

As much as people like to see criminals as 2d villains, they are humans with fundamental human drives.

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Everyone knows! This is a common scheme to get pregnant in order to avoid jail / get leniency. It’s quite common and a disgusting way to try and dodge accountability.

Normally I would side with your view but if you know anything about Holmes this is a very naive view to take.

> Holmes' defense team cited her "two very young children" in its latest argument for why Holmes is not a flight risk and should remain out of prison while she appeals her fraud conviction.

Lawyers will and are almost required to argue anything they think may work, whether done intentionally or no. If she had developed sudden cancer they would have argued using that, too.

Until she says what and why she was doing what she did (and even then) we don’t really know - mayhap she realized her chance of having children afterwards would be severely reduced.

Yes, fundamental human drives like greed and power seeking.

The whole history of philosophy has been a discussion of morality - which drives to promote and which to suppress in order to live a life that benefits both the individual and the community the individual lives in.

Robert Nozick discusses these matters in The Examined Life: Philosophical Meditations.

Even the small San Francisco street criminal who steals cars is probably motivated by something which could be called fundamental human drives.

That's a tricky thing to consider, especially when imprisoning women.

Didn't this person steal billions and conned dozens or hundreds of investors while trying to sell snake-oil blood testing machines under the guise that it would be a great thing for the world, especially poorer countries?

What reality do you live where that is not pure 2d villain material?

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