Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes had a baby, raising questions about her fraud trial beginning this month

Behind the Bastards did a great couple of episodes on Holmes and Theranos. Highly recommended (as is the podcast overall).

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Maybe she just had free time? Having a fulltime job makes it difficult to have children, probably even if your company is just a fraud.

Regardless I think it should play exactly as much of a role in her conviction and sentencing as if she were a poor women of color.

My response is, so what? There isn’t any point in speculating what her motives are with regard to the baby and doing so is in the same category as speculating about the motives of any other woman with regard to their actions surrounding their own biology.

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I think you’re giving her too much credit for forethought.

I think she just wanted a baby as an accessory, and didn’t really care one way or another about the kid’s impact on her trial.

It’s been literal years since the collapse of Theranos, and she’s still walking around free. Jail? She’d never serve a day, even without the kid. Jail is for poor people.

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Easy – Put the kid up for adoption; that way it won’t have a sociopath for a mom.

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Agreed.

I once worked for the law firm that defended her - during discovery, the tedious task of scanning her communications into PDFs was assigned to me, including some of her personal journals.

I mostly blanked out my mind while I was working, but occasionally, some of what I was looking at made it past my mental filters - so when I say that the woman seems like a sociopath to me, I’m basing that on more than just the usual public perceptions of her.

(She reveres fucking Kissinger, FFS…)

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After reading ‘Bad Blood’, the word ‘psychopath’ is definitely one that could be applied to Holmes. Is the child really going to have a safe, stable upbringing in the care of such a fantasist, or would it be better for the baby’s future if the courts intervened to have it removed to foster care?

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Unfortunately, the kid will probably end up with the father, who’s already shown abysmal judgment by choosing to have a child with Holmes.

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Hey, now.

Everyone is capable of making disastrous-ass mistakes in their dating/mating choices.

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Might be different this time: Too many “big” names (and to an extent, the FDA) suffered embarrassment on a mighty big stage, and wealthy investors got swindled.

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So, basically slavery?

Tell me about it. I’ve lost count of my own bad decisions in that regard. Being on the dating apps, I’m effectively making them right now.

Still, if I encountered an infamous and recognisable fraud, liar, and woo-peddler who’d been in the news for years, was the subject of full-length books and podcasts and documentaries, and was likely prison-bound because she’d been reckless enough to try to cheat rich and powerful people, I like to think that even with my own flawed judgment I wouldn’t “swipe right” (let alone have a baby with her).

According to this article, which is quite the read, the husband is the “27-year-old heir to the Evans Hotel Group chain of hotels in California”. I’m guessing from that (and from the CV described in the article) he doesn’t have a lot of life experience dealing with the consequences of bad decisions and judgment.

At least the kid won’t want for anything materially with all that family money.

I agree – a white person can get away with a lot of bad behaviours in America, but publically defrauding wealthy and prominent people and institutions isn’t one of them. I don’t think this ploy is going to keep her out of the slammer, but from what I’ve read about her she’s very good at deluding herself that a hail-mary pass like this could work.

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That baby knew what they were doing, serves them right. /s

What baby? It’s an infinite source of replacement organs (and laproscopic sangfroid!)

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Having a uterus is not a get-out-of-judgement card. It’s the mirror image of misogyny to think that a birthing person’s motives should never be questioned. Do you think people who contribute sperm to the process should never have their motives questioned?

No, I think their motives are almost never questioned. Nobody has ever accused a man of getting pregnant so he could stay out of jail to my knowledge.

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