Ethical dilemma here - pointing fingers, blame goes around but nobody responsible - how?

Where is the other?! I don't see the other!!!

This is such a sad situation. But if I had to go, this is the way I would want to, while I was sleeping and not freezing to death or those cases where the daddy and mommy leave the infant in the car by accident (rolling eyes) in the middle of July.

I don't understand why the stolen meter was "unsafe." It was a stolen meter and electricity should be shut off because it was a stolen meter, but how does one make it unsafe? I don't get it. Does the electric company feel better saying they shut service off because they were living in unsafe conditions or because they found a stolen meter and shut it off without giving them any options??

Mom leaves kids, I mean look at it!! If she were stabbed that many times, and daddy did 16 months, what judge in their right mind would let daddy keep the kiddos? It is next to impossible for the dad to get custody. I guarantee you she signed over papers to him and she wasn't paying any child support. No doubt. Now she is in the picture (much like Michael Browns mom. She didn't want him, left him with g-ma but suddenly cares so she can show up on the BET awards) because of the limelight. It's disgusting.

There's enough blame to go around. But not enough will bring back those kids. Too many cases of fractured families in America.

This could be a matter of pride killing or just bad parenting. Either way now it is too late to point fingers. This should be a clear reason you should always be neighborly and check on them. A neighbor could have see the need and helped or said hey your generator can kill you inside. I would blame society. Today people have focused so much on themselves and their phone that they can't see people that need help around them.

How does the mom not know how her seven kids are living.....but ready to drop everything after they died to claim she would have helped them live?

Not that this is a good thing, but I question why the father had custody of the kids when the "system" heavily favors nature mothers over fathers.

Does the power company share responsibility in the deaths of this family?

No, they did the safe and legal thing to do.

Is the father solely responsible for the deaths of himself and his children?

Yes, anyone with a few brain cells to rub together knows you cant run an engine indoors. Generators (at least everyone I have seen) have a warning label saying such.

Is welfare to blame for the deaths because they did not give the family enough to pay their bills?

NO! We dont know if they were on welfare and it is beyond their scope. Maybe CPS...

Are both parents responsible, after all, they had more children than they could afford to support. right?

Both are responsible not because of how many children they had, but because they were THEIR children.

I think it's a sad case of a man working to try to take care of his kids on his own and doing what he can and poor judgment. I think it's rather sad that the mother who abandoned the kids is now coming forward for the pity party. I think Delmarva should have followed up when they removed the meter to make sure there were no occupants. It's sad and tragic all around. My deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.

Nobody wins in this story, everyone is a loser. Too sad that it happened at all.

It's a sad situation, to be sure.

The power company acted correctly. They are certainly not to blame. The family was stealing electricity; this behavior causes problems for the Free Market system.

According to the article, the man had full custody. As I understand it, this means that the woman did not have responsibilities beyond child support. I do find it unusual that the woman did not have custody of the children, as it says she was the breadwinner. I thought that the mother normally gets the kids in a divorce, and I would expect it would be even more so if she is also the one making money. No, it was not her fault. Being behind on child support doesn't mean she's at fault for their deaths.

It's certainly not 'welfare's' fault, especially since he didn't even ask for assistance with his utility bills.

The fault lies with the father. He had a responsibility to pay his own bills, and to not choose dangerous methods of powering his home. There was help available that he declined. The article indicates that the woman lost track of him after he moved; if this is true, then he did not even make the effort to keep her updated on his address so she could send him the money she owed them.

Is there a link for this? I am not aware of this story.

Honestly, I can't vote on this one. I don't know enough of the actual facts of the case to make an informed opinion.

On the surface, this looks like an extreme case of simple mistakes leading to a tragic conclusion. With what little I know of the situation, I don't think it's possible to say, "This thing here is the cause."

The problem with this is that it the article is missing some key information. One it does not say who it was that had installed the stolen/illegal meter. THe house was a rental so if the illicit meter was installed by the home owner, then the home owner and the power company are absolutely complicit in this tragedy. The article states that the electricity wasn't cut because of late payment/non payment. It states that it was cut due to the illicit meter. Why weren't the police notified that a stolen and or illegal meter had been installed?

I live in Florida, when we have been without power following hurricanes, my neighbors have used generators outside. It is annoying, but they are within their rights to have it running. It is nice that the father was trying to be respectful of his neighbors, but running that generator indoors without proper ventilation was not smart.

The article states "Maryland regulations allow utility companies to terminate service without notice if the utility finds a condition on the customer's premise is hazardous or the customer has tampered with the utility's equipment." They should still be required to explain why they did terminate the service without notice.

Additionally the article states "Later Tuesday, the utility revealed that the rental home never had legal power while the Todds lived there. The utility said the electricity had been disconnected in October, and there was no request to reconnect it after the family moved there in November."
This indicates that the owner of the property was at least aware that something was not right.

The state seems to also have some responsibility in this as they left the children with a man who had stabbed his domestic partner. The mother of the children stated that he had never been abusive toward the children, but that he had been abusive toward her. How long would it be before he turned the attention that gone to her onto the children? Abuse is not only a crime, it is a disease. It is not something that just goes away.

There is enough blame in this disaster for everyone.
The dead father should not have run that generator indoors, and should have applied for available assistance. He does get points for working, and making an effort not to live on welfare.
The mother should have taken custody of the children, she should have known where her children were living, and what conditions they were living in.
Both parents should have invested in birth control if they were not going to be able to support a family of that size.
The power company has some responsibility just from the way that the situation was handled by them. Cutting the power is one thing, but not informing the resident as to the reason why is ridiculous. IF the father was unaware of the power situation, it could possibly have been resolved simply by communicating what was going on. Maybe they could have worked with him to get proper power running to the house.
Finally the state holds their blame in letting those children remain in that situation. Between documented domestic abuse to inability to provide for the children, the state should never have awarded this man custody of those children. If their mother did not want custody, then they should have been made wards of the state.

I will close this rant by saying this whole tragedy should have been avoided. It could have been avoided. The only true victims in this tragedy are the seven children who went to bed one night, and never woke up.