So, a mother has taken the harrowing decision to end the life of her child, in a desperate act of Euthanasia, should she be jailed for nine years?

Wow! I can understand to a certain extinct of why she did it, but on the other hand I can’t agree with what she did.

I would not want to have been on the jury for this one.

Very tough. I would be more sympathetic if she hadn’t made the first attempt just 2 months after the initial accident. At that point, how could she know for sure that his long term prognosis was so negative? It sounds like she may have caused some of the vegetative state that he was in for the last year before her successful attempt.

I can’t agree with what she did against physician’s wishes. If they had gotten a second opinion that agreed with their assessment of his condition maybe.

Nine years is pretty light when you consider that most murderers are locked up until they die.

On the one hand, I do not have strong objections to “mercy killing” when it can be proven to be “warranted”. That is, if the “victim” had made known his desire not to persist in a vegetative state (and my god, who needs to make that desire known? who would want to hang on to life for an indefinite period in that state?), and the “perpetrator” can be shown as a loving and caring friend or family member.

Certain criteria would have to be met: Did the “perpetrator” stand to gain financially or otherwise from his “victim”‘s demise? (Life insurance, inheritance, etc.) Was the “perpetrator” previously close to the “victim”? Can it be shown how the “victim”‘s vegetative state made for an intolerable state of affairs for the “perpetrator”? If those criteria (plus whatever other reasonable ones can be determined in some sort of checklist), then I’d say that mercy killing should be justified. (It’s sad that doctors’ Hippocratic Oath—and malpractice laws—prevent them, for the most part, from administering lethal doses of painkiller, for example, that can be written off with a wink and a nod as “accidental overdose”. But if you want a doctor to do this, most of the time there has to be a tacit agreement in place beforehand that there won’t be a wrongful death or malpractice suit brought—and the doctor has to be ethically on board with it in the first place. Good luck with that.)

I think a 9-year sentence in this case is overkill (no pun intended) and ridiculous. I can understand why people often resort to murder – suicide in cases like this. I would think that a conviction on a lesser charge (say, Manslaughter) and probation would be perfectly adequate. She’s not about to be doing this again, I think. She shouldn’t be a nurse, obviously, but otherwise she’s no danger to society.

Generally I wouldn’t take issue with ending the life of a person who wasn’t going to recover from something like this. Hower it looks like MagRags might be right and the woman jumped the gun possibly ruining her son’s chance of recovery. I’m not sure if I would count that as a full murder though. It sounds to me like she had an exaggerated perception of her son’s condition. Had her son been in the state she seems to have thought he was in I would definitely back her up. Since that’s not the case manslaughter may be a more fitting charge than murder.

I am thinking about this in terms of the American system were ending the life of a terminally ill or coma patient can be very difficult if not impossible to accomplish legally. I don’t know what the law is in the UK. If they are more willing to allow ending the life of these patients in the UK and she went around their procedures and guidelines I have no interest in defending her actions.

I agree with @CyanoticWasp. If I was in a vegetative state, I would want someone to do the same for me.

This discussion alone makes me want to go write a living will, at age 34. DNR!

Another case also in the news today resulted in the mother being released. You can’t have two cases with similar circumstances and wildly different results like this and pretend that the justice system works.

@Lightlyseared The cases are only superficially similar. The son was in a vegetative state, which isn’t as dire as the famed persistent vegetative state and his wishes were not known. The sick daughter wanted her life ended.

@MissAnthrope
I figure that if you’re in a vegetative state, you won’t care one way or the other :\.

I dont agree with ending someone’s life but it is infinitely superior to withdrawing food and water and letting them die a slow painful death. If he was not persistive vegetative there may have been hope of recovery, if he was scared etc something was going on. Just because someone cant communicate pain does not mean it is not felt. I also think a court order to stay away was woefully inadequate. What about mental health counselling, medication, community support for the whole family? If she was stable she would have considered what impact this would have on the rest of the children and the possibility of jail.

I don’t think she should be jailed. It makes me feel sad that her daughter couldn’t go someone where she could be legally put out of her pain, instead of her mother having to do it.

The courts have limits placed on them by legislation on the minimum and maximum sentences for each class of offence. Deviations from these guidelines results in court decisions on sentencing being overturned in higher courts.

No matter how tragic the underlying facts of a case may be, without changes in the laws, the charges must be brought against those responsible for acts of euthanasia, and on being found guilty of some category of murder, the prescribed sentences must fall within the guidelines.

When society is ready to require changes to the laws for killing demonstrably motivated only by concern for the deceased, as if that can truly be determined, then different dispositions of such cases might be possible.

We rarely have any reliable evidence to support claims about the quality of life of a severely handicapped or debilitated child.

@Dr_Lawrence I agreed with you up til this:

“We rarely have any reliable evidence to support claims about the quality of life of a severely handicapped or debilitated child.”

I would expect it wouldn’t be all that hard to assess the quality of life of handicapped people. There are tons of people who spend their lives working with the handicapped in addition to the doctors who treat them and the family and friends that stand by their sides.

Maybe you mean this in the legal sense that is is hard to demonstrate quality of life in court. That might be more true, but I don’t see why a lot couldn’t be couldn’t be learned from the testimony of people with the sorts of close relationships to the deceased I just mentioned.

I wonder if the UK has different definitions for murder vs manslaughter than the US? Per the discussion in the Scott Roeder thread I would think this would have been classified as voluntary manslaughter since there doesn’t seem to have been any malice involved.

@fundevogel I was referring to the legal sense. The courts distrust those closest to those who suffer because they are not “objective” or “disinterested”.

Even doctors and professional caregivers?

I meant family members. Physicians and nurses have more credibility before the courts but a doctor advocating euthanasia is in a tricky ethical and legal position.

@Dr_Lawrence I could see how that could be a sticky situation for doctors given the controversy. But it is sad to think they may feel pressured into keeping their honest assessment private if its unpopularity could be a threat to their career. Evidence and informed opinions should not be overlooked to avoid controversy. It only hurts us in the long run.