January 1998
HEADLINE; Latimer appeal welcomed by disabled
Mike Mastromatteo
Cheryl Eckstein, executive director of the Compassionate Healthcare Network said the appeal will bring groups representing the disabled together with one voice. We are really one-minded about this. Tracy Latimer had a right to life and justice and she was not served". more...
Latimer appeal welcomed by disabled
By Mike Mastromatteo
The Interim
Canada's pro-life, pro-family community applauds a decision by the Saskatchewan
government to appeal the lenient sentence given Robert Latimer in the killing of
his 12-year-old disabled daughter Tracy.
The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal announced the decision to challenge the
sentence December 17. The action comes as the country's disabled community
recoils from the news of Mr. Justice T.G. Noble's December 1 ruling to exempt
Latimer from a mandatory 10-year minimum sentence.
Noble granted a rare constitutional exemption from the mandatory penalty and
sentenced Latimer to two years less a day, the last half of which is to be
served on Latimer's Wilkie-area farm.
Noble justified the decision by suggesting that the 10-year sentence would be
"cruel and unusual punishment" for a man carrying out what he
described as "compassionate homicide."
Proper punishment
Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition, expressed hope that
the appeal will lead to
Latimer's punishment fitting his crime. "Allowed to stand, Justice
Noble's ruling would enshrine this ‘compassionate homicide' craziness in
law," Hughes said. He added that the lenient sentence given Latimer tells
disabled Canadians that they don't have the same legal protection as other
citizens.
"A lot of people haven't forgotten that Tracy was the victim here, and that
the law is supposed to protect the innocent, not excuse the guilty," Hughes
said.
In a letter to the Saskatchewan Attorney General John Nilson, June Scandiffio of
the Toronto Right to Life Association, said the original sentence was
practically indefensible. "If it is allowed to stand
unchallenged ... Justice Noble's sentencing decision tells us that certain forms
of murder - such as that of the disabled - are less heinous than others,"
Scandiffio said. "His drastic sentence reduction has effectively lowered
the threshold of criminal liability in terms of murdering a handicapped
person."
Canada's disabled rights community, pro-life organizations and church groups
were equally horrified by the Latimer sentence. Some described the action as a
travesty of justice which has left the country further along the "slippery
slope" of declining respect for life and disposable humanity.
These groups fear the sentence has set a dangerous precedent in the justice
system's attitude toward the
murder of disabled persons. Unlike assisted suicide cases, Tracy Latimer could
give no indication of a
desire to die. In fact, despite physical pain and the prospect of numerous
operations to deal with her
cerebral palsy, there were indications Tracy was coping with her disability.
The disabled community is also concerned by Latimer's appeal to compassion as a
justification for murder. Latimer's defence attorney Mark Brayford said
repeatedly that his client acted out of compassion when he killed his daughter.
He also said Latimer was motived only by a desire to put an end to years of
physical pain for Tracy.
Latimer admitted to police that in October, 1993, he placed his Tracy in the cab
of the family pickup truck, and attached a hose from the exhaust pipe to the
truck interior. Tracy died of carbon monoxide poisoning within minutes.
Second trial
This was the second murder trial for Latimer. His first conviction for
second-degree murder in 1994 was declared invalid when it was discovered the
Crown prosecutor had questioned jurors as to their views on mercy killing and
abortion. The original prosecutor is awaiting trial on obstruction of justice
charges.
Cheryl Eckstein, executive director of the-based Compassionate Healthcare
Network (CHN) in Surrey, British Columbia, said the appeal is welcome news to
the disabled. She called the original sentence "a derailment of
justice," adding that killing the disabled for compassionate reasons is a
travesty.
Eckstein said the appeal will bring groups representing the disabled together
with one voice. "We are really one-minded about this," she said.
"Tracy Latimer had a right to life and justice and she was not
served."
http://www.lifesite.net/interim/jan98/1Latimer.html
Not Dead Yet protests euthanasia conference at Harvard
"The Catholic Church does not speak for us. The hospice folks do not speak
for us. The anti-euthanasia advocates do not speak for us."
A small contingent of Not Dead Yet, frustrated that no one from "the
non-medical, non-religious opposition" against what they call
"physician induced death" had been invited to participate in the
Harvard International Conference on Euthanasia, End-of-life Care and Decision
Making, protested at the two-day conference in early November, which was
attended by several hundred people from the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands.
Although there were some pro-disability panelists -- disability scholar Adrienne
Asch and the Compassionate Healthcare Network's Cheryl Eckstein -- some NDY
activists insist that "only we can adequately represent our unique analysis
of this issue."
"The issue for us can't stop at polite discussion of opposing views,"
said Not Dead Yet. "For over a decade, we've tried that style -- and we'll
keep trying -- but that's not enough. It's time to take the issue to the streets
-- not because we seek a chance to speak at a conference, not even because we
want an equal voice in the ongoing debate, which we have been long denied -- but
to save lives."
Harvard was a particularly appropriate target, some felt, because Harvard had
published "the so-called 'Model Act' that specifically expands PID to
non-terminal people with disabilities."
Not Dead Yet's protest was mentioned in the Harvard student newspaper, the
Harvard Crimson, though there was no reporting of the specific issues addressed
by the activist group.
http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/jan98/ndy.htm
Archive file found Ap.19.07
see also: DYING FOR RELIEF by Cheryl Eckstein
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