Monday 10 December 2007

Latimer should stay behind bars

Your letter writers claim there was a "miscarriage of justice" for Robert Latimer? I don't think so -- Robert Latimer gassed his daughter to death.

The words seem stark on the page, but they are true. He murdered her. Consider this: your daughter has a congenital syndrome that, among other things, leads to a painful joint dislocation. You can take advantage of Canada's vaunted public health system and have the doctors perform the recommended orthopedic repair, with additional pain-relieving medication and rehabilitation. Or you can drag her out to the backyard shed and gas her to death.

Years later, he still shows no remorse. I think the penalty, and denied parole, are appropriate.

Anyone who now laments the jail sentence for "this simple farmer," this "salt of the earth" man can only be motivated by one thing: a complete disrespect for people with disabilities, indeed a belief that they are somehow not worthy of being fellow members of our human community. No amount of "care" or "compassion" talk can sugar-coat this ugly truth below the surface of such a notion.

If Robert Latimer truly believed he was doing the right thing in killing his innocent daughter, then he should be man enough to pay the price. His daughter already has.

Paul Ranalli, Toronto.

source

Jemdude's Comments:

This is a very popular case in Canada and especially among the disability community. Years ago, Robert Latimer killed his daughter Tracy Latimer just because she had a disability. Lots of people at the time wrote in and sympathized with Latimer. The disability community as a whole is outraged because it shows that a lot of people don't think highly of people with disabilities.

The problem is, we don't know if Tracy Latimer wanted to be killed. If this kind of ruling was left to stand, a person can kill anyone with a disability and then make up a story saying that "they wanted me to end their pain" when in reality, they just want to make an excuse to murder someone.

In Canada, we already have the legal right to take our own life. Don't support someone else to have the right to make that decision for you.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

First of all, let me state that i stnad well to the left. I believe suicide is a human right, and that assissted suicide should be legal for people who cannot physically do it themselves.

Still, I don't like what he did. Suicide is a very personal decision, something you cannot make for some one else.