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A two-year-old girl is dead and the person arrested is her own mother. There is no policy debate that can make that sentence acceptable. The only response that matters is a swift, complete prosecution and a justice system that still treats the murder of a child as the worst crime on the books.Societies are judged by whether they protect the smallest people who cannot protect themselves. When the alleged killer is a parent, the failure is total. Courts, child-welfare agencies, and neighbors all exist so that this outcome becomes rare. When it happens anyway, the law must be unambiguous.Political point-scoring around a toddler’s death is a secondary disgrace. The primary duty is to the child who is gone and to every other child who still needs adults to act like adults. Clear punishment and no excuses are the minimum a country owes its young.