[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mercy-kill-20101122,0,1208279.story[/url]
[QUOTE=]
Through seven decades of marriage, Roy Charles Laird was by his wife's side.
After Clara got sick and started showing signs of dementia, he refused to hire nursing aides to help care for her. He insisted on doing everything himself — from washing her laundry to cooking her meals.
He was there nearly every day, a pained witness to her steady decline over the last five years.
He was also there at the end, according to Seal Beach police, who say that on Sunday around noon, 88-year-old Roy killed 86-year-old Clara with a single gunshot to the head at her nursing home.
He was arrested on suspicion of murder for what some who know them see as an act of love.
"It was a mercy killing," said their daughter, Kathy Palmateer, 68.
[/QUOTE]
Personally, I feel sorry for this old man and his family. I can sympathize after seeing my grandma suffer with various issues as she got older. I sure as hell would no longer want to live a life like that. Hopefully the jury will see that this wasn’t a selfish act and let him free.
What are your thoughts?
I guess you could say he...
killed her.
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("Why Reply" - Jimbomcb))[/highlight]
I don't think I would be able to bear seeing someone I love unable to remember to remember their own friends/family members. I don't condone his actions, but I understand why he did it.
[QUOTE=rawr >:3;26234072]I guess you could say he...
killed her.[/QUOTE]
:colbert:
[QUOTE=Pasalaqcua;26234136]:colbert:[/QUOTE]
Now nobody will want to do a shitty pun post. Thank god.
This is why Euthanasia should be legal, get the job done in a nice clean way.
There is a point when the quality of life of the person is so low, they are better off being dead (e.g. no pain ect.). It is no different to pulling the plug on a coma patient.
Husband wasn't in the wrong.
I hate to use the term "bleeding heart" because it's so stupid and trite, but these bleeding hearts have such a skewed view on what constitutes a worthwhile life they fail to realize that death is sometimes the preferable option.
If I ever start losing my mind or control of my bowel movements, I'd expect someone to put me out of my misery.
I don't think the best idea was to put a bullet in her head but it's not like there's an easy way to get assisted suicide.
88 year old husband kills dying wife with a single bullet, after staying by her side every day for five years.
Daughter: "It was a mercy killing"
Others who know them: "It's an act of love"
OBVIOUSLY WE HAVE A MURDERER ON OUR HANDS, LOCK HIM UP!
crap I meant to vote YES it was right, but I misread the poll..
but yeah mercy kills are morally right.. If I was to become terminally ill I probably kill my self or sign a DNR so I don't suffer.
I, personally, wouldn't ever do something like this; but I agree with what he did, as long as his wife would have wanted it that way.
It's cruel to let someone live in pain.
Ugh, dementia really is terrible. I've had a relative who had Alzheimer's disease. It's really painful to watch it progress.
He did the right thing..
I'm all for mercy killings, but there are better ways to go around it than like some combination of Dr. Kevorkian and the Punisher. Well, there would be if it was legal.
Why is Euthanasia not legal?
No I don't think it is right. The person at hand or in any situation might look like a lost cause but who knows what they're thinking. Maybe they want to keep living despite their disease. I have a relative that is going though the same thing, I know once she passes it is going to be a sad thing, but at the same time a relief. Even if we're in pain and hate seeing her that way none of us would take a gun and shoot her. It isn't our place to do so.
If it were the family dog nobody outside their friends and family would give a shit, both situations it's a life lost
[QUOTE=MR-X;26234868]No I don't think it is right. The person at hand or in any situation might look like a lost cause but who knows what they're thinking. Maybe they want to keep living despite their disease. I have a relative that is going though the same thing, I know once she passes it is going to be a sad thing, but at the same time a relief. Even if we're in pain and hate seeing her that way none of us would take a gun and shoot her. It isn't our place to do so.[/QUOTE]
Dementia, by definition, is a degradation of the ability to think rationally. I can see why you'd consider it a grey area since she seemingly didn't have a will, but it's a rather safe assumption that someone would want to die as soon as the main thing that people use to define humanity falls out of their grasp.
[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;26234936]Dementia, by definition, is a degradation of the ability to think rationally. I can see why you'd consider it a grey area since she seemingly didn't have a will, but it's a rather safe assumption that someone would want to die as soon as the main thing that people use to define humanity falls out of their grasp.[/QUOTE]
How do you know going crazy isn't fun? Maybe they're seeing all sorts of awesome hallucinations?
I meant to choose No, but I misread the question.
Also, I approve of euthanasia in cases like this...
Just because you're not rational doesn't mean you don't have free will. Look at people who believe in aliens or that 9/11 was done by the US government.
[QUOTE=Jookia;26235003]Just because you're not rational doesn't mean you don't have free will. Look at theists.[/QUOTE]
Chosen irrationality is different than irrationality brought on by a medical problem
[editline]22nd November 2010[/editline]
[QUOTE=Mingebox;26234988]How do you know going crazy isn't fun? Maybe they're seeing all sorts of awesome hallucinations?[/QUOTE]
It's dementia.
Comments like that are why mental illness is still misunderstood and stigmatised in society
[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;26235013]Chosen irrationality is different than irrationality brought on by a medical problem[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I retract that theist part to avoid a shitstorm. I'm sorry if I've offended any theists.
I also agree that it's different, but I don't believe that free will is taken away.
[QUOTE=Jookia;26235036]Yeah, I retract that theist part to avoid a shitstorm. I'm sorry if I've offended any theists.
I also agree that it's different, but I don't believe that free will is taken away.[/QUOTE]
[quote]Dementia is not merely a problem of memory. It reduces the ability to learn, reason, retain or recall past experience and there is also loss of patterns of thoughts, feelings and activities (Gelder et al 2005). Additional mental and behavioral problems often affect people who have dementia, and may influence quality of life, caregivers, and the need for institutionalization.As dementia worsens individuals may neglect themselves and may become disinhibited,the individual may become incontinent as their condition worsens (Gelder et al 2005).
Depression affects 20–30% of people who have dementia, and about 20% have anxiety.[8] Psychosis (often delusions of persecution) and agitation/aggression also often accompany dementia. Each of these needs to be assessed and treated independent of the underlying dementia.[/quote]
It's a terrible illness, and it most certainly does affect "free will" because free will encapsulates many of the things in the first paragraph of that quote. (As far as I know, "free will" is not an accepted medical term)
So your belief differs from scientific fact.
I believe he did the right thing, albeit messily. The worst torment someone can endure is to see those you love in pain with little you can do to lift it.
This was an act of love and mercy, I think he deserves to go free. But I think his grief will be an even greater prison.
:crying:
My grandmother has dementia, she keeps forgetting things some time after, my mum cares for her everyday, she hasn't got it as bad as Clara did though, she can still function and despite all she forgets she remembers every detail about her husband, who passed away about 17 years ago now, even the army number he had in WW2 that she had to use to send mail to him. Sorry for going off on that tangent there, I felt it relevant.
Also no on the poll, I think consented euthanasia should be allowed. I'm pretty sure it was for the better of her, and from what the news article says the husband doesn't seem the man who would just do that without honestly believing it was for her better. I imagine it was hard enough for him to even do it.
I want to be killed sometime around when I lose the ability to wipe my own ass
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
