Aunt convicted of injecting nephew with heroin
There's something fishy about this story. A woman from Detroit was sentenced to 8 years in jail in connection with the heroin overdose of her 12-year-old nephew. Jacqueline Ellen Vuich, 26, pleaded guilty to shooting her 12-year-old nephew up with heroin while he was eating dinner.
The 12-year-old was eating spaghetti in the basement of the home Jan. 24 when Jacqueline Ellen Vuich, 25, allegedly took a syringe and injected the drugs near the elbow, according to police. [Click2Houston/AP]How do you shoot heroin into the elbow of an unsuspecting person while they're eating dinner? The kid was later treated for a heroin overdose, so he somehow ended up with a fair bit of the drug in his system. If this woman did anything to contribute to that, she's guilty of some very serious crimes. A 12-year-old can't morally or legally consent to heroin from his 25-year-old aunt any more than he could consent to sex with her. However, I just can't believe than the cops' version of events is accurate. It's very difficult to give someone a shot against their will, especially if they're up and moving.
Update: Vuich's nephew initially told doctors that his aunt gave him a powdered substance, but later told the police that she injected him.
Did she hit a vein?
Posted by: zuzu | December 02, 2006 at 11:29 PM
I've dealt with nurses with 20 years experience who, when they take my blood, have trouble keeping the syringe in my vien the whole time. The idea that this aunt managed that against a newphew who was somehow trying to avoid being injected is hard to believe.
Posted by: Lawrence Krubner | December 03, 2006 at 12:35 AM
Eating spaghetti? Getting the needle in the vein requires the assistance of the injectee, at a minimum putting down his fork. Then the kid will instantly lose his appetite. Someone’s story’s squirrelly.
Posted by: cfrost | December 03, 2006 at 03:23 AM
How do you shoot heroin into the elbow of an unsuspecting person while they're eating dinner? [snip] However, I just can't believe than the cops' version of events is accurate. It's very difficult to give someone a shot against their will, especially if they're up and moving.
I don't see anywhere in the story that the cops (or anyone else) are alleging that the newphew was "unsuspecting" or that the woman gave him the drugs against his will. What am I missing?
Posted by: parse | December 03, 2006 at 10:22 AM
to inject heroin, a vein is not necessary. a skin pop will do. personally, i know of cases of children as young as 7 being injected with iv drugs by relatives. probably some details of the incident are garbled. look at who is providing said details.
pili
Posted by: pili | December 03, 2006 at 11:13 AM
mmm, spaghetti! this is the best spaghetti i ever had, auntie! man, i need more! give me spaghetti! man, can you lend me some dough, i'm jonesin' for meatballs, man, just a taste, i just need a taste of ragu, just a little, i'm sick, auntie, i need my spaghetti!!!
.
.
Posted by: skippy | December 03, 2006 at 12:12 PM
It's the claim that the aunt injected him while he was eating spaghetti that, if true, would suggest that she injected an unsuspecting victim. Eating spaghetti and getting a shot don't sound mutually compatible. Maybe she grabbed him while he was eating dinner and proceeded to shoot him up. Or maybe she asked him over dinner whether he wanted some H, and later administered some heroin to her victim. Reprehensible, no matter what. However, just as forcible rape should carry a more severe penalty than statutory rape, administering heroin to a "consenting" minor is less serious than ramming a needle into his vein against his will.
Posted by: Lindsay Beyerstein | December 03, 2006 at 12:41 PM
http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/110306/loc_aunt001.shtml
Sorry i didn't linkify that. It's a suburb of Detroit, in one of the post WWII tract home areas.
Sounds like a brothel where the kids were given drugs too.
Posted by: anon | December 03, 2006 at 01:15 PM
"nephew"
Posted by: The Phantom | December 04, 2006 at 01:16 PM
My wife, when she taught in a reform school, had a student whose guardian (I can't remember whether it was mother or another female relative) had given the kid a dose of "heroin", since she didn't trust her supplier and wanted to test it. ("Heroin" in quotes because given the kid's and police reports' version of events, it had some stimulant in it.)
I'm not certain, though, that the kids "consent" is really meaningful here. Sure, I view most statutory rape as a *fake crime; I don't view statutory rape by an authority figure, who has good opportunities for coercion, that way.
*(What I mean is--if the sex is apparently consensual and the parties involved have a relationship where sex seems reasonable, except for their age---I don't think statutory rape is actually wrong and so think it shouldn't be criminal; I know quite well that it actually is.)
Posted by: SamChevre | December 05, 2006 at 06:30 PM
I am a 14 yr old boy. Last summer i went to stay with my aunt who is almost 50yrs old.During this period she had forcably sex with me several times also oral sex.She would put her fingers in my ass.This time i dont want to go but wht shd i tell my parents
Posted by: Kiran kumar | July 07, 2007 at 04:00 AM
I am a 14 yr old boy. Last summer i went to stay with my aunt who is almost 50yrs old.During this period she had forcably sex with me several times also oral sex.She would put her fingers in my ass.This time i dont want to go but wht shd i tell my parents
Posted by: Kiran kumar | July 07, 2007 at 04:03 AM