From the [Melbourne, Australia] Herald Sun, New Zealand Herald, [New South Wales] Daily Telegraph:

Australian newscaster Tracey Spicer (left) says she considered suffocating her mother in 1999 as an “act of mercy” to end her “immense pain and suffering” from pancreatic cancer. The revelation, in an opinion piece, stirred new controversy in a nation that is deeply divided over the recent convictions of two women in the death of a man with Alzheimer’s disease.

Spicer said her intention was to prompt a public discussion, not to persuade Australians either way about whether euthanasia should be legalized. In her commentary, she said, “I knew it was the right thing to do. But as I looked down at the woman who gave me life, I knew that I could not take hers.” Her mother died a few hours later.

(Herald Sun photo.)

From the Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News [Australia] and elsewhere:

In what was perceived as a blow to Australia’s euthanasia movement, two women were convicted of manslaughter and accessory to manslaughter in the death of former airline pilot Graeme Wiley.

Mr. Wylie, 71, died in March 2006 from an overdose of the veterinary drug Nembutal, which family friend Caren Jenning had bought and illegally imported from Mexico, and which his partner Shirley Justins had given to him in their home.

He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in March 2003 and the case centered on his capacity at the time of his death to decide whether he wanted to commit suicide.

The verdict prompted calls for changes in the law by pro-euthanasia advocates.

Drew national attention for her opposition to ‘the charity mentality.’

From the Charleston [S.C.] Post and Courier:

Harriet McBryde Johnson, a tenacious, well-known Charleston disability and civil rights attorney, died suddenly Wednesday. She was 50.

South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal said Johnson was a fierce advocate for the disabled, a nationally revered attorney and a titanic figure in state legal history.

Johnson was perhaps best known for her 2003 New York Times Magazine cover story “Unspeakable Truths.” The first-person piece described her journey to Princeton University to debate ethicist Peter Singer over his advocacy for the legalization of selective infanticide of children with disabilities. The cover of the magazine carried a photo of Johnson in her power wheelchair with the headline “Should I have been killed at birth?”

He insists he doesn’t want to kill me. He simply thinks it would have been better, all things considered, to have given my parents the option of killing the baby I once was, and to let other parents kill similar babies as they come along and thereby avoid the suffering that comes with lives like mine and satisfy the reasonable preferences of parents for a different kind of child. It has nothing to do with me. I should not feel threatened.

Whenever I try to wrap my head around his tight string of syllogisms, my brain gets so fried it’s . . . almost fun. Mercy! It’s like ”Alice in Wonderland.”

Johnson also drew national attention for her opposition to “the charity mentality” and “pity-based tactics” of the annual Lewis muscular dystrophy telethon. She protested the telethon for nearly 20 years.

She was the author of the unconventional memoir Too Late to Die Young: Nearly True Tales from a Life, a wry exploration of her life in “Cripworld,” and the young adult novel Accidents of Nature, about teens at a summer camp for children with disabilities in the 1970s.

Johnson, who had a congenital neuromuscular disorder, ran a solo law practice in Charleston.

News and Courier profile of Harriet McBryde Johnson is here.

Profile from New Mobility is here.

Late addition: June 7, 2008, obituary from the New York Times is here.

From the Regina [Saskatchewan] Leader-Post:

Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer, who served seven years in prison for the murder of his daughter Tracy, says he is seeking a new jury trial. Tracy had cerebral palsy, and Latimer has maintained that he killed her to end her suffering. He claims he did not receive a fair trial.

His decision to serve his day parole in Ottawa, he insisted, is “not a great move to institute new policies in the federal government. All I want is some honest answers. And I really believe I deserve them.”

One of the answers he’s seeking relates to assertions by the courts that he and his wife could have used other medication to manage their daughter’s pain more effectively.

(more…)

Writing in the [Toronto] Star, columnist Helen Henderson contests the popular view that Tracy Latimer’s life was full of misery and not worth living. That portrayal, she says, was promoted by the defense team of Tracy’s father, Robert Latimer, in an unsuccessful effort to turn away a murder conviction.

Latimer was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death fifteen years ago of his daughter, who had cerebral palsy. Latimer has now been released on day parole and is seeking to clear his name.

An excerpt:

I have no doubt Robert Latimer loved his daughter. I have no doubt that, like the parents of any severely disabled child, he sometimes felt very alone.

I also have no doubt that Tracy Latimer is a victim twice over – once of murder and once of the injustice served by a society that can’t see beyond the surface of disabilities and won’t invest the resources that families need to nourish children who don’t communicate or move or process information like the majority.

Disability advocates fear appearance of leniency puts vulnerable at risk; Latimer’s supporters call for legal reforms

From the [Toronto] Star:

People with disabilities are expressing fear and disbelief over public reaction to the day parole of Robert Latimer. The Saskatchewan farmer had served seven years of a life sentence on a second-degree murder conviction after asphyxiating his daughter in the cab of his truck. Twelve-year-old Tracy had cerebral palsy.

… Advocates for people with disabilities are concerned any appearance of leniency may put other vulnerable people at risk.

… The Council of Canadians with Disabilities, a Winnipeg-based legal advocacy group, believes “Tracy and her right to life have been forgotten” in the public reaction to the case.

… “This isn’t about one man,” says Anna MacQuarrie, policy analyst at the Canadian Association for Community Living. “Tracy had a serious disability, not a terminal illness. Robert Latimer did have alternatives. It’s time to focus on the bigger issue and that is attitudes to disabilities.”

From the London [Ontario] News Free-Press:

Member of Parliament Joe Comartin said the development is bound to ignite parliamentary debate, but called it a “cop-out” to look at legalizing assisted suicide or lenient sentences for mercy killings without first addressing inadequate community support resources.
(more…)

From CTV, [Toronto] Globe and Mail:

Robert Latimer, the Saskatchewan farmer convicted of killing his severely disabled daughter in 1993, has been granted day parole.

Latimer has maintained his daughter’s death was a mercy killing, saying her condition had caused her constant pain and discomfort.

… The National Parole Board refused to give Latimer day parole in a hearing last December, after he again refused to admit any guilt in the killing. But that decision has been overturned by the National Parole Board Appeal Division.

… Jim Derksen, of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, warned that the decision to grant Latimer parole could give the impression that his act was sanctioned by the justice system.

Latimer’s daughter Tracy, who had cerebral palsy, was 12 years old when her father gassed her to death with carbon monoxide in his truck on the family’s farm in Saskatchewan in 1993.

Earlier posts start here.