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Killing

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EUTHANSIA ESSAY

To kill somebody you love because they are suffering from a disease or to let them live and suffer horribly every day? That is one of the hardest experiences somebody can ever go through. Personally I pray that I will never have to go through such a tough choice. If you kill them, you have to live with that on your conscious for the rest of your life. But, if you let them live, you have to watch them suffer and struggle every day just to live to the next day. “Cerebral palsy is a group of disorders that can involve brain and nervous system functions such as movement, learning, hearing, seeing, and thinking.” (A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia). Tracy Latimer was only 12 years old when she suffered from Cerebral Palsy. She couldn’t move, hear, see, or anything. She was basically a human vegetable. Her father, Robert, was supposed to take her to get an operation done. Instead, he locked her in the car and let it run, which eventually led her to die from carbon monoxide poisoning. He was convicted of second degree murder and was given a 10 year sentence. Did Robert Latimer do the right thing? Should he be looked at as a danger to society and a murderer? Or should people look at him as somebody that saved his daughters life?

Yes, Robert Latimer is unquestionably a murderer. He took away the life of an innocent 12 year old girl who did not do anything wrong in her life. She was not a threat to anybody. All she did was take up air. She couldn’t move, see, hear, or do anything. Why kill her if she isn’t harming anybody? You can’t just take people’s lives away because you feel like they should die. First of all, he didn’t even have his daughters consent. If his daughter had told him that she doesn’t want to live anymore, and he went to a judge maybe it would have worked out differently. Secondly, he could have ended her life in a much easier and non-gruesome way. It didn’t even have to end up in death. Robert could have given her away to the hospital to look after her so he doesn’t have to watch her suffer in front of him. What Robert Latimer did was 100% (percent) wrong and could have been handled a completely different way than he had done it.

No, Robert Latimer should not be convicted of murder, because he saved his daughters life. There is this quote that goes like this, “If you love it, you will let it free.” I think this is what Robert Latimer was going for. He obviously loved his daughter very much and couldn’t handle seeing her suffer and go through so much pain anymore. So he decided himself, to pull the trigger. I think that he shouldn’t have been convicted of murder because simply he isn’t a murderer. What he did was the smart thing and it was out of love and compassion for his daughter. “Every single neighbour that knew Robert testified for his gentle nature and his love for his daughter Tracy” (Mclachlan 2010 [p. 30-31]). This should have been enough for the judge to declare Robert Latimer not guilty. Robert didn’t have any past bad experiences with the law. You can tell he was a good person and was doing something out of his heart and love for his daughter.

What Robert Latimer did to his daughter was morally correct but how he proceeded to do it was wrong. If Robert talked to somebody about it and got help, he would of never got convicted for murder and would be a free man. He could have given her to a rehabilitation centre of a hospital to let her die in peace instead of in the back seat of his car. The final decision was all up to the judge of this case. Both sides could be right and both sides could also be wrong. It all depended on how the judge saw this and felt about this kind of act. If he saw that Robert was a kind hearted person and did this for the love of his daughter, he would have let him off and not convicted him of anything. But, the judge saw Robert as a murderer probably because of the way he killed her.

References http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001734/ Ethics In Action p. 30-31 – Personal Opinion Paper #1

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