You know, this whole things just sounds like one of those tragic "she slipped through the cracks" stories.

The circumstances that lead to this woman giving birth in a dog pen, and then trying to kill her newborn are, I'm sure, tragic indeed. They probably involve all of the following: poverty, ignorance, mental retardation, deafness, language barriers, racial barriers, etc. However, I highly doubt any one thing caused the problem. Lots of deaf, mentally diabled people live fairly normal lives. Lots of poor people are good parents. Lots of immigrants do well in our society. Lots of neglected children grow up to be normal, productive adults. It's probably a combination of all these things, and any one individual thing is not worth arguing about.

Obviously, though, the situation this woman lives in now isn't working for her. If she is so mentally disabled that she can't comprehend murder, then she needs to be institutionalized for life. Obviously, her family isn't doing a real swell job of watching out for her, whatever the reasons may be. If she is judged to be mentally astute enough to understand her own actions, then, yes, she is an attempted murderer and deserves prison time - deaf or not.