Wesley J. Smith tells of an irony down under. Thanks, Leslie, for the tip.
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Good news and bad news. An Australian jury has convicted two women who killed an Alzheimer's patient. From the story:
The Sydney jury found Shirley Justins guilty of manslaughter and Caren Jenning guilty of being an accessary to manslaughter for the euthanasia drug death of former Qantas pilot Graeme Wylie...Justins pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting suicide early in the trial, and said Wylie was desperate to die before his dementia got worse. Jenning also told the jury she was motivated by mercy in travelling to Mexico to obtain the Nembutal for Wylie, who was one of her oldest friends.
Normally, such a defense melts hearts and juries--caught up in the "quality of life" ethos of our age--often will not convict. And that brings us to the bad news:
Apparently the women had a financial incentive for the deaths:One week before his overdose, Wylie drew up a new will leaving all but $200,000 of his $2.4 million estate to Justins.
The previous will had left 50 per cent to Justins and split the remaining half evenly between his two daughters, Tania Shakespeare and Nicola Dumbrell. Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC told the jury Justins was motivated by a desire to secure her financial future, and either deliberately killed Wylie or let him take the drug Nembutal and was indifferent to the fatal consequences.
Sadly, I believe that but for this proof, the case might never have been brought.
Predictably, the death on demand advocate Philip Nitschke was appoplectic:
Euthanasia campaigner Phillip Nitschke is advising Alzheimer's sufferers against getting tested for the disease, after two women were convicted over the drug death of a dementia sufferer.
To Nitschke,
nothing comes before the euthanasia agenda--not even obtaining proper medical care. Yet, he remains a hero of the international movement and a darling of the Australian media.
Labels: Euthanasia Convictions. Philip Nitschke.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 10:44 AM Australian "Euthanasia" Manslaughter Convictions
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This thread from wagglebee hits home.
When our own son was born, extremely handicapped, we unabashedly and openly trusted our doctors and the medical profession with his life, with ours, never daring to consider questioning the lofty god-like persona of a doctor. That changed. It was nurses who saved the life of our son, and my wife, at that horrible time, not the doctor who would have let both pass.
Years later, and without our permission, while our son was at a facility promising to help his condition, he was rushed to emergency surgery. We found out by chance and rushed in as they prepped our son for emergency surgery to correct an intestinal obstruction, a procedure almost guaranteed to kill our frail son. It took a scream fest, threat of a knuckle sandwich and our pulling the tubes ourselves to remove our son to safety ahead of the gendarmes. We had tried to explain our son was suffering from a mere migraine, something obvious to us, unthinkable to the emergency room surgeon. When the authorities caught up with us, our son, recovered from his migraine, was smiling and happy. This typical incident reflects our wary attitude at times towards those who jostle our lives in their hands as little gods.
On with the story:
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TORONTO, June 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - It has been more than two years since Annie Mary Farlow was born with Trisomy 13, the 3rd or 4th most common chromosomal anomaly in North America. Many Trisomy 13 children die during their first week of age; most do not survive childhood; and only a small percentage reach their teenage years.
Annie's story is not that different from the other countless stories of children with genetic illnesses. She was loved by her family. She died very young - eighty days after her birth - and when she died, her family was devastated. Her death was premature, hastened by doctors who made a series of unilateral decisions without regard to her parents' consent. It is a story that plays out every day, all over the world. The first and second parts are always told. But the third part rarely is.
That is the difference between Annie and so many others with the same condition - Annie's story is being told........................
Annie's Story: The Tragic and Untimely Death of a Girl with Trisomy 13 - PART 1
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