That poor man. I wept as I read this. ~~What use is sending him to prison?~~
I wonder why he called the police.
> A pensioner who slit his wife’s throat in a suicide pact
Hol’ up. What?
Not sure I’ve ever seen one of these type stories where a history of abuse isn’t eventually uncovered…this might be the exception but its all horrible regardless
Jesus!!! That was a hard read.
I don’t understand this one… its either murder or he’s free…
For manslaughter the key point is that you are not intending to kill, this man 100% knew he was going to kill her, it was premeditated and apparently agreed, but the key point is that the intent to kill someone was always there, it can therefore by definition not be manslaughter…
Now with things like this, back in the day doctors used to just leave far too much medicine and say “don’t give it to her all at once” with a knowing look. But now that’s not always an option… so if there was doubt over the intentions here it should have always been murder otherwise… just let the poor man off.
Further evidence that morality > law
Technically, yes, that is what he did. But it does also appear to be an act of compassion. Whilst I agree it can be argued to appear suspicious, it’s also not something it’s reasonably possible to share in public or private.
Euthanasia is taboo, for good reason, but that does not make it inherently suspect. Whilst it of course needs to be investigated, it does seem like there isn’t much use practically or in principle in jailing this man.
It sounds like the moral thing to do would be to euthanize him as well.
My mother just died from lung cancer. It was undignified, she lost all autonomy, and spent weeks in agony beyond belief. After that, she spent more than a week comatose, although she was still occasionally screaming in pain.
Assisted dying needs to be legalised.
After seeing my mum die from cancer yeah ain’t no fucking way I’m sticking it out to the end. It’s a fucking brutal and horrible way to die totally transforms you into a different person.
I’d rather have my throat slit than endure that.
We really need to talk about dignity in death. My mum says to suffocate her if she is ever diagnosed with dementia, I love her but I also have no desire to lose her and then see her die physically after that. Other people will be in the same position or will have already had to go through all that, it is not right that we can let our pets die on peace but not ourselves. People talk about the potential for abuse but other countries and some US states allow assisted dying and they have not seen cases of abuse. We could adopt a similar system to them so it is not like we are trying to reinvent the wheel here either. It is not a nice topic to discuss but watching your loved one die in agony is arguably worse.
I understand why terminally ill people want to die, rather than suffer. Death isn’t always like the films where people slip away peacefully. Sometimes it can be extremely distressing, painful and undignified for patient and family. More decent palliative care might help. Saying that cutting a partners throat isn’t the first option I’d think of. Sad story all round.
Heartbreaking to read. The suffering that man has been through
Assisted suicide needs to be legalised. We consider people that don’t euthanise their pets when severely ill and suffering to be cruel yet do the same to people who want and ask us to end their suffering. It’s the one part where we as a society treat animals better than we treat people
> A pensioner who slit his wife’s throat in a suicide pact before trying to kill himself has walked free from court after a judge said he was ‘entirely satisfied [he] acted out of love’.
Good.
What a disciplined, brave and highly committed man. He knew how he could be treated and he did what he thought was right anyway.
I am truly in awe of people with this kind of real commitment to each other.
As a society we are still insane when it comes to death. We aren’t able to handle the facts properly and we dare not make tough decisions deliberately.
This man’s behaviour is more evolved than the sum of us as a society. Praise people with the bravery to euthanise a suffering relative. They are doing the right thing under unbelievably hard circumstances. They have my deepest admiration.
Probably had trouble caring for her and seeing her in such pain
I can’t believe that we’re sitting here in the year 2022 and people still don’t have control over their own body and being forced to continue existing in pain against their will by the bronze-age throwbacks that constitute the UK government. This is a national disgrace. Legalise the right to a safe and humane death for anyone who wants it. The government is not enduring our suffering on our behalf, and it is not giving us a free ride either. It should not be able to aggressively intervene to prevent us from ending our lives if we don’t want to continue in the circumstances that we’re stuck in, or don’t want to face what lies ahead. The only exceptions should be if it can reasonably be demonstrated that someone has committed a crime or unilaterally made someone dependent on them, which would justify their loss of autonomy.
Good grief, just legalise euthanasia for crying out loud.
7 months ago my dementia stricken uncle collapsed – at which point we found out that he had cancer in his lymphatic system, heart failure, liver and kidney malfunction…It really did feel like the universe was pointing a shotgun at his head and asking him to choose which shitty, undignified painful death he’d like to have take him.
Instead of being able to take the option to tell the medical staff to just make him comfortable and let him fade peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, I got to watch them desperately try to plug hole after hole for something they knew was going to be painful. I’m not sure who felt more helpless.
17 comments
That poor man. I wept as I read this. ~~What use is sending him to prison?~~
I wonder why he called the police.
> A pensioner who slit his wife’s throat in a suicide pact
Hol’ up. What?
Not sure I’ve ever seen one of these type stories where a history of abuse isn’t eventually uncovered…this might be the exception but its all horrible regardless
Jesus!!! That was a hard read.
I don’t understand this one… its either murder or he’s free…
For manslaughter the key point is that you are not intending to kill, this man 100% knew he was going to kill her, it was premeditated and apparently agreed, but the key point is that the intent to kill someone was always there, it can therefore by definition not be manslaughter…
Now with things like this, back in the day doctors used to just leave far too much medicine and say “don’t give it to her all at once” with a knowing look. But now that’s not always an option… so if there was doubt over the intentions here it should have always been murder otherwise… just let the poor man off.
Further evidence that morality > law
Technically, yes, that is what he did. But it does also appear to be an act of compassion. Whilst I agree it can be argued to appear suspicious, it’s also not something it’s reasonably possible to share in public or private.
Euthanasia is taboo, for good reason, but that does not make it inherently suspect. Whilst it of course needs to be investigated, it does seem like there isn’t much use practically or in principle in jailing this man.
It sounds like the moral thing to do would be to euthanize him as well.
My mother just died from lung cancer. It was undignified, she lost all autonomy, and spent weeks in agony beyond belief. After that, she spent more than a week comatose, although she was still occasionally screaming in pain.
Assisted dying needs to be legalised.
After seeing my mum die from cancer yeah ain’t no fucking way I’m sticking it out to the end. It’s a fucking brutal and horrible way to die totally transforms you into a different person.
I’d rather have my throat slit than endure that.
We really need to talk about dignity in death. My mum says to suffocate her if she is ever diagnosed with dementia, I love her but I also have no desire to lose her and then see her die physically after that. Other people will be in the same position or will have already had to go through all that, it is not right that we can let our pets die on peace but not ourselves. People talk about the potential for abuse but other countries and some US states allow assisted dying and they have not seen cases of abuse. We could adopt a similar system to them so it is not like we are trying to reinvent the wheel here either. It is not a nice topic to discuss but watching your loved one die in agony is arguably worse.
I understand why terminally ill people want to die, rather than suffer. Death isn’t always like the films where people slip away peacefully. Sometimes it can be extremely distressing, painful and undignified for patient and family. More decent palliative care might help. Saying that cutting a partners throat isn’t the first option I’d think of. Sad story all round.
Heartbreaking to read. The suffering that man has been through
Assisted suicide needs to be legalised. We consider people that don’t euthanise their pets when severely ill and suffering to be cruel yet do the same to people who want and ask us to end their suffering. It’s the one part where we as a society treat animals better than we treat people
> A pensioner who slit his wife’s throat in a suicide pact before trying to kill himself has walked free from court after a judge said he was ‘entirely satisfied [he] acted out of love’.
Good.
What a disciplined, brave and highly committed man. He knew how he could be treated and he did what he thought was right anyway.
I am truly in awe of people with this kind of real commitment to each other.
As a society we are still insane when it comes to death. We aren’t able to handle the facts properly and we dare not make tough decisions deliberately.
This man’s behaviour is more evolved than the sum of us as a society. Praise people with the bravery to euthanise a suffering relative. They are doing the right thing under unbelievably hard circumstances. They have my deepest admiration.
Probably had trouble caring for her and seeing her in such pain
I can’t believe that we’re sitting here in the year 2022 and people still don’t have control over their own body and being forced to continue existing in pain against their will by the bronze-age throwbacks that constitute the UK government. This is a national disgrace. Legalise the right to a safe and humane death for anyone who wants it. The government is not enduring our suffering on our behalf, and it is not giving us a free ride either. It should not be able to aggressively intervene to prevent us from ending our lives if we don’t want to continue in the circumstances that we’re stuck in, or don’t want to face what lies ahead. The only exceptions should be if it can reasonably be demonstrated that someone has committed a crime or unilaterally made someone dependent on them, which would justify their loss of autonomy.
Good grief, just legalise euthanasia for crying out loud.
7 months ago my dementia stricken uncle collapsed – at which point we found out that he had cancer in his lymphatic system, heart failure, liver and kidney malfunction…It really did feel like the universe was pointing a shotgun at his head and asking him to choose which shitty, undignified painful death he’d like to have take him.
Instead of being able to take the option to tell the medical staff to just make him comfortable and let him fade peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, I got to watch them desperately try to plug hole after hole for something they knew was going to be painful. I’m not sure who felt more helpless.