Charla Nash

The online edition of this morning's New York Post has a photograph of Charla Nash, the woman who was mauled by the chimp in Stamford earlier this year. I was going to include a link to it, but decided against it. I am usually less bothered by this kind of thing than most people, so I looked at the photograph. But I was quite disturbed by it.

In a case like this, it's hard not to think that she might have been better off dying. She's lost her eyes, her jaw, her nose, and all but one of her fingers. She says she is not bitter, which, if true, is testimony to a remarkable strength of character.

In the meantime, she's suing the state of Connecticut for $150 million, saying that they had been warned that the chimp which mauled her had been brought to the attention of authorities before, and they had done nothing about it (which is true).

Any jury with normal human instincts, when they see her, will award her a lot of money. At least her family will be rich when she passes on.