An Old Bailey jury was heckled yesterday after a mother who injected her brain-damaged son with a lethal dose of heroin to end his suffering was found guilty of murder.
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6995295.ece

She could have petitioned to court, to allow life support to be turned off, to let him die of starvation, hunger and thirst. This would have been a slow but legal way. Wait for months and years for a court verdict and then let the kid die of hunger and thirst. How humane our laws are. Typical example of human stupidity because of religious hangups.

A painless death, this is illegal. A human has only the right to starve to death. Such is human “morality”.  A horse or a dog may be killed with a lethal injection for a painless death.  If you killed an animal by starvation, or if you kept it alive artificially, the humane society would sue you.  And this is what this mother will go to jail for:  she wanted her son to die in dignity, like any dog or horse.

The family had thought of applying for a court ruling to allow Tom to die in hospital, but decided against it as it meant stopping food and water, starving him to death.

Alex added: “How can it be legal to withhold food and water, which means a slow and painful death, yet illegal to end all suffering in a quick, calm and loving way? It’s cruel and illogical. The law isn’t keeping pace with modern medicine and surgery, which is wrong as it leaves too many people in such tragic and painful existences.

Source:  http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/21/judgment-2-no-mercy-115875-21983621/

Assisted suicide and right to die (More human-stupidity.com articles)

More sources:

• Life in jail for Frances Inglis who injected disabled son with heroin’
  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1088826/Mother-charged-killing-disabled-son-heroin-jab-lay-care-home-bed.html#ixzz0dHgRtx5E
• http://armchairrevolutionaries.blog.co.uk/2010/01/21/a-merciless-sentence-7849874/
• http://www.herald24.co.uk/

More human-stupidity.com articles about assisted suicide and right to die

An Australian high court ruled Friday that a quadriplegic man has the right to refuse food and water and can be allowed to die, a rare legal finding that some see as a major victory for right-to-die campaigners.

While hailing the victory, Nitschke decried the fact that Rossiter will have to undergo a slow and painful death through starvation, rather than having a quicker and painless way to end his life. Because he cannot use his hands, Rossiter must rely on others to withhold treatment rather than being able to take his own life. Switzerland has an assisted suicide law, and Rossiter has considered going there.

“It’s a bit sad that the best that Australia can come up with,” Nitschke said, “is that we can let a person like that starve to death

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/14/australia.right.to.die/

He said it all. No dog would be allowed to slowly die of starvation. But for Mr. Rossiter, this is better then being forced to stay alive in his suffering. See also http://human-stupidity.com/stupid-dogma/assisted-suicide-death-dignity-right-die/right-to-die-paraphlegic-starve-to-death

It is also absurd that the guy has to painfully starve himself to death instead of being allowed to be put to sleep humanely (or should I say with dignity only allowed to animals)

A 49-YEAR-OLD quadriplegic who says his life is a “living hell” will find out whether he can starve himself to death as early as next Friday.
The Brightwater Care Group has lodged an application seeking advice on whether the nursing home should continue feeding Mr Rossiter, despite his wish to starve to death.
Mr Rossiter has described his situation in total paralysis as unbearable. He is in 24-hour care at Brightwater, in Perth’s northern suburbs.
Speaking through a tracheotomy tube, Mr Rossiter said he wasn’t afraid of dying, just the pain. Mr Rossiter yesterday told Perth Now that Australia should adopt Switzerland’s euthanasia laws and allow people freedom of choice in their right to live or die.
“I’m hoping the courts won’t force them (nursing home staff) to sustain me,” Mr Rossiter said.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25896071-2,00.html

1. Add to this the huge cost of his life, 24 hour care. This will be paid by his money, until it runs out, by insurances and by society. Can we afford this luxury?
2. Would he have the right to refuse to pay for treatment?
3. To me it is obviously a human right to end one’s life,  for a person that never will recover, never will have a dignified life, that never even would remain alive if not kept alive artificially,

It gets more problematic if

• a fairly healthy person wanted to die. Or if somewhat sick and frail people want to die because life is no more productive nor a joy.
• Or if a very sick person did not want to die, but society would have to pay huge cost to keep her or him alive. If they did not, that would be cruel? well look at all these people whose life could be improved by very expensive medical procedures, but are not because nobody wants to pay for it.

Also it is very sad that people are only allowed to be taken off life support to die a slow starving death, not a dignified pleasant death.