Motherhood, Metaphor, and Redemption in McKnight v. State of South Carolina

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar I

Abstract

This paper addresses the role of hegemonic conceptions of motherhood in the prosecution of pregnant addicts. It uses the case study of Regina McKnight, the first woman to be found guilty of homicide by child abuse for undergoing a stillbirth after smoking crack cocaine, as an example of the use of the mother role in legal rhetoric and in the media to both condemn and redeem a woman struggling with an addiction.

Author

• Jessica Bargar, Penn State University