Prosecution Asks Gosnell: 'Are You Human?'

During closing arguments in the trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell Monday, Assistant District Attorney Ed Cameron turned to Gosnell and asked, “Are you human?”

According to CNS News, Cameron’s question was in response to the fact that Gosnell’s defense attorney, Jack McMahon, had continually asked, “Are you human?” of the witnesses for the prosecution who testified. That question, observed Cameron, should really be asked of Gosnell.

In response to Cameron’s question, Gosnell stared back at the assistant district attorney and laughed.

“To med these women up, to stick scissors in babies’ necks–he’s the one in this case that doesn’t deserve to be called human,” Cameron said.

Sean O’Sullivan, reporting for Delaware Online, said that in his closing arguments, McMahon told jurors that prosecutors had exaggerated, intimidated, and generally abused their power in bringing what he called a racist and elitist prosecution against Gosnell, a black doctor serving a poor community.

“We know why he was targeted,” McMahon told the jury, evenly divided between black and white individuals. “If you don’t see it, you are living in some sort of La-La-Land.”

Cameron dismissed McMahon’s race-baiting, explaining Gosnell ignored both medical and sanitary standards of care, as well as patients’ safety, by having untrained and unsupervised staff administer high levels of labor-inducing drugs. These procedures caused patients great pain, as well as many premature deliveries of babies in chairs, on the floor, and in the toilets.

“My dog was treated better than those babies and women,” Cameron said.

Addressing McMahon’s charge of racism, Cameron responded that the last time he checked, his boss, District Attorney Seth Williams, was black.

Cameron specifically addressed the murder charge related to the 2009 death of Gosnell’s patient, Karnamaya Mongar. He said that Mongar’s death was the direct result of Gosnell’s “assembly line” treatment of abortion patients in which a one-size-fits-all drug was administered by untrained staff.

Cameron asked jurors to “use their common sense” in determining whether the babies in Gosnell’s clinic were born alive.

“Why do you think there’s a hole in its head?” Cameron asked. “It was because that was an added step to make sure that baby was dead.”