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Man who killed seriously ill wife cleared of murder
BBC ^ | July 21 | BBC

Posted on 07/21/2023 11:04:55 AM PDT by RandFan

A British man who killed his seriously ill wife at their home in Cyprus has been cleared of her murder.

David Hunter, 76, was instead convicted of manslaughter after suffocating 74-year-old Janice Hunter at the property near Paphos in December 2021.

The retired miner from Ashington, Northumberland, maintained her death was assisted suicide and his wife, who had blood cancer, had begged him to end her misery.

He will be sentenced on 27 July.

Hunter's lawyer argued the death was assisted suicide because Mrs Hunter was suffering and she asked him to do it. His trial heard he had attempted to take his own life after she died.

As the three judges handed down their verdict at the district court in Paphos, Hunter hugged his legal team and told the BBC he was "happy and elated".

His lawyer Michael Polak, from Justice Abroad, said the verdict meant there was a "very good chance" his client would receive a suspended sentence and be able to return to the UK to live with his daughter.

"This wasn't a pre-planned act," Mr Polak said. "He acted on the spur of the moment because she was in so much pain."

Mr Polak said the judges accepted Hunter had a "loving" and "dream" relationship with his wife of more than 50 years and "on that morning she asked him to end her life".

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

Even if you are not capable of doing it yourself? Someone who is bed ridden, dependent upon someone else to feed them, change their colostrum bag and give them their medications yet aware enough to know they are terminal but can still talk and feel pain? I hope I am never that bad off when it is time for me to go, I hope it’s quick and painless.


21 posted on 07/21/2023 12:13:12 PM PDT by eastforker (All in, I'm all Trump,what you got!)
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To: caww
A cancer Dr. told me that there is no reason for any terminal cancer patient to suffer in this day and age.

Government is most certainly the reason, and it happens often. Pain Management is one of the biggest issues along those lines these days. The paranoia over addiction or making addicts means that millions have to suffer more, needlessly. I think you were missing half of the message that the doctor was trying to convey.

22 posted on 07/21/2023 12:19:16 PM PDT by Teacher317
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To: RandFan

I read this article, and my first question was why didn’t her doctors provide better pain management?
This man should not have been put in this situation.
It’s possible that the doctors had already provided the maximum dosage of pain relief they were legally allowed to do. She should have been in a hospice. Sad that the surviving spouse felt obligated to put himself in legal peril.


23 posted on 07/21/2023 12:25:58 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: Teacher317
‘Sedation’ was derailed because family members complained nurses were sedating patients so they could get their work done on night shifts etc. Which who cares even if they were doing that - try one day to work on a lunatic ward or those with violent dementia - survival getting your crotch gripped so tight it takes four aids to get the patient off. Let alone those in the grip of cancer pain.
24 posted on 07/21/2023 12:41:02 PM PDT by caww (O death, when you seized my Lord, you lost your grip on me......)
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To: eastforker

The family took care of my mom at home on her last few months. She was still in good spirits and sharp as a tack at 96 years old. But she was barely eating - something like 200 calories a day for the last few weeks. Finally she collapsed and we got her into bed where she lasted another week or so.

Still talking but pretty out of it and in pain. The home-nurse gave her morphine, and we could give it to her as well. Looking it up, morphine is a pain killer, but IIRC it also slows down the body system, and as you up the dose to take care of more and more pain, it shuts down the body more and more too.

Obviously my mom was at the end of her days, but the increasing doses of morphine to keep her comfortable seemed a little bit to me like helping her die as well. IIRC I didn’t tell the others about my moral qualms.


25 posted on 07/21/2023 12:50:36 PM PDT by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

“ What you can not do is be a coward and push the job off onto someone else.”

I watched my younger brother drowning in his own blood after a 6 year battle with cancer. He was too weak to do anything for himself by then. He begged me to give him the shot.

So I did. You’d better hope and pray you never get the opportunity to call him a coward to my face. It’d end up being the worst day of your life.

L


26 posted on 07/21/2023 12:54:47 PM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: 21twelve

Yup, good ol morphine. My late wife had been in and out of hospital several times for COPD and had been intubated several times. The last time they took the tubes out she lasted about a day before the docs said if she wanted to live she would need to be intubated again. She told me and the family nope, she wanted to go home. I told her if she knew what it meant if she was not intubated again and she said yup, I’ve had enough and asked to sign the DNR papers. She signed and hospice brought her home that evening. They gave her medication and she slept through peacefully that night. Next morning she woke up and asked for bacon and eggs and fried potatoes. I made them for her and when she got done asked for a cigarette, of course I gave her one and soon after hospice showed up to clean her up and so forth. They prescriber her morphine in a small bottle with an eye dropper, one drop on the gums was the dose. The nurse was in her room talking with her for a good while, I kinda knew what was going on. Hospice left and her already asleep, checked on her an hour later and was dead. I am sure the hospice nurse granted her wish with the morphine, I got no problem with that.


27 posted on 07/21/2023 1:05:25 PM PDT by eastforker (All in, I'm all Trump,what you got!)
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To: EEGator

My neighbor is going through this with his wife right now. He was talking with my husband last weekend, wondering if it was selfish that he just wanted it to end. I told my husband it’s not selfish, it’s REAL. NOBODY wants to see their loved one suffer like this. I can’t imagine what he’s dealing with. She’s lasted longer than all the doctors thought she would, and is in IMMENSE pain, pretty much on permanent Oxycontin. I will not judge anyone in these circumstances.


28 posted on 07/21/2023 1:36:42 PM PDT by Mama Shawna
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To: EEGator
Nitrogen. Lights out. No toxic mess.
29 posted on 07/21/2023 2:29:20 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: eastforker

Because many Christians think you have to think what they think…


30 posted on 07/21/2023 2:36:21 PM PDT by EEGator
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To: Mama Shawna

It’s terrible.


31 posted on 07/21/2023 2:36:50 PM PDT by EEGator
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To: RandFan

At least he waited until she was seriously ill

Some spouses don’t even wait that long


32 posted on 07/21/2023 2:37:49 PM PDT by NWFree (Sigma male 🤪)
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To: eastforker
Even if you are not capable of doing it yourself?

You are capable of doing it yourself IF you want to.

Most people actually do not.

Oh sure they say they want it but you place the medicine close enough for them to take it and peacefully drift off and 97 times out of 100 they will not take it.

Talk with hospice workers, they will tell you.

33 posted on 07/21/2023 2:48:48 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Follow the money. Even if it leads you to someplace horrible it will still lead you to the truth.)
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To: Lurker
He pushed the choice off on you. Now you have to carry it.

If it makes you feel better you can believe what you like.

Fact remains.

Could you do that? Push that weight onto someone you love?

34 posted on 07/21/2023 2:51:23 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Follow the money. Even if it leads you to someplace horrible it will still lead you to the truth.)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

“He pushed the choice off on you.”

Did you miss the part where he was too weak to even move?

Yea, you did. I most fervently hope that one day you’re in the same situation.

I really, really do.

L


35 posted on 07/21/2023 3:15:39 PM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: Persevero
Interesting he did not choose a kinder way to kill her.

That was my thought, too. I can almost imagine circumstances that would justify something like this but to do it by suffocation sounds grusome. She must have struggled - even if you think you want to die the reflex to breathe can't be overcome.

36 posted on 07/21/2023 3:27:53 PM PDT by TexasKamaAina (The time is out of joint. - Hamlet)
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To: RandFan

Should have drug her dying butt to Canada ... they’ll kill you at the drop of a hat!!!!


37 posted on 07/21/2023 3:45:25 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (Biden not only suffers fools and criminals, he appoints them to positions of responsibility. )
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To: eastforker

God gives us the gift of life. We are not supposed to squander it or to end it ourselves without good reason, such as saving other lives. God does the deciding about when it’s your time to go.


38 posted on 07/21/2023 4:39:33 PM PDT by skr (Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. - Proverbs 14:34)
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To: skr

If true, then why would a loving god let some one suffer in agonizing pain. God also gave us the gift of free will. Unlike animals, we have the ability to think things through and for us to do what is best for us or our family. So, if God decides when we die, he wouldn’t allow us die of our own free will would he. I also don’t think he would want us to suffer needlessly. Do you honestly think he decides who lives and dies in a time of war, severe illness or in an accident? If you believe he does, he would have never allowed us to invent modern medicine that saves lives daily. Are we going against god will when we cure a patient of a terminal disease?


39 posted on 07/21/2023 4:54:19 PM PDT by eastforker (All in, I'm all Trump,what you got!)
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To: eastforker

Informed consent. Doesn’t mean anyone’s gonna believe you.


40 posted on 07/21/2023 7:30:26 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (e allowed )
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