More heated debate on Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer, who was denied parole recently. Latimer has served seven years in jail for the second-degree murder of his 12-year-old daughter Tracy, who had cerebral palsy. Latimer has described her killing as an act of mercy, and has said he does not feel remorse.

Noteworthy: the Canadian Civil Liberties Union is now facing off against a leading disability rights group.

Parole Board erred in Latimer case, rights group says. From the [Toronto] Globe and Mail, the Canadian Press, the Saskatoon [Saskatchewan] Star Phoenix. and the Regina [Saskatchewan] Leader-Post. The Canadian Civil Liberties Union is calling on the federal government to initiate a judicial review of the decision to deny Latimer parole.

The group says the Latimer decision was inconsistent with another recent decision involving a violent attack, that the statute did not require Latimer to express remorse, and that Latimer is not a threat to society. The Globe and Mail story has drawn 265 reader comments.

The Robert Latimer Case — No basis for Clemency. From the Canada NewsWire. The Canadian Association for Community Living, a group representing hundreds of thousands of Canadians with intellectual disabilities and their families, opposed calls for clemency for Latimer.

Tracy Latimer deserved to live. We will not compromise on that position, nor will we compromise on our position that Canadians with disabilities and their families by and large are not receiving the supports and services they need, and largely do not live in the welcoming and supportive communities they deserve.

But the divide this case has awakened in the public consciousness of Canadians suggests there is something deeper at issue here…

… fundamental to building a truly just, compassionate, and caring society is that we hold true to the ideal that all humans are deserving of the basic protection, support, nourishment and care that make life possible and worth living, even under the most difficult of conditions. Without that belief, … we risk a slide into a society that justifies some of us deciding for others what lives are worth living and under what conditions. CACL will always confront that risk, in the name of a Canada that values inclusion and recognizes the immense diversity of human life.

I would never pass a death sentence on my child, by Laura Rosen Cohen in the [Toronto] Globe and Mail.

We know what Robert Latimer did on that fateful day. What Robert Latimer did not do is also clear. He did not put his daughter into foster care. He did not make her a ward of the state. It is also not clear if he solicited any second opinions for his daughter regarding pain management for non-verbal individuals. He just bundled her up and killed her.

The last face she saw in her short time on earth was the face of the man who helped create her and would be her killer, too.

A society that condones his actions is one that has rejected the sanctity of human life. Instead of comforting the disabled, it sees them with horror and revulsion, and deserving of the death penalty. Instead of finding ways of making their challenged lives difficult, it snuffs them out.

Start looking at earlier posts here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 10:12 pm and is filed under cerebral palsy, civil rights, international, mercy killing, public attitudes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post