GERIATRIC MERCY KILLINGS
A 83-year-old Texas man dying of cancer who had nursed his partially paralysed wife for 13 years has been charged with her murder. Doctors say that James Roberson will probably die within months and his case may never come to trial. Police in Dallas speculated that either he did not want his wife Mary to go to a nursing home after his death or he did not want to leave her alone.
The killing has been widely described as an act of compassion. However, a Colorado State University expert on mercy killings, Silvia Sara Canetto, disagreed. “Whether it’s compassionate for the other person [who is killed] is difficult to answer,” she said. “I would say it’s not.”
Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.
Latest posts by Michael Cook (see all)
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