OPinions on the woman who killed her son?

[SherriHewsonsNipple]

do you think she desverved 9 years?

Am i right in thinking he wasnt strictly speaking terminally ill

Yet if something nasty happened to your MIL, I don't suppose you could get away with manslaughter, Riven?

Thanks for that article, Nooka. He makes some very good points.

Particularly the comparison to his own experience, and the comment from Tom's doctor. It seems that Tom may well have recovered if his mother had not administered the first dose of heroin.

Riven
If I am on the jury when you do away with your MIL then I will acquit you. Talk about mercy killing

And Tom's brother trying to justify his mother's action because he had detected a look of panic and fear in Tom's eyes- makes you wonder how anyone comes out of hospital alive!

Certainly the labour wards would have a far quicker and more efficient turnover if the habit of bumping off anyone who showed signs of panic and fear became widespread.

I always like Dominic Lawson's writings about disability. Completely agree.

Yes he does.

In fact, I'm not even sure that I like the idea of justifying disabled people's right to live with how happy they are on a scale of 1 to 10. Isn't that expecting rather a lot of disabled people: why should they have to be smiley and jolly all the time, when the rest of us don't?

I have several NT friends who suffer from longterm depression: afaik noone has tried to bump them off just because they're not happy.

It's like if you're disabled you somehow have to prove your right to live.

Only hgot a minute

first off I dont see her as a hero in anyw ay,I want toclarify that. And I dont think it matters less that her son was disabled.
As I said, iI hope anyone knowing my circs realises that or I am being viewed as the shittiest mum they could have.

however I am not amking my point very well.... I don'tknow if ashe had MH issues but I can't see a woman going through that as not having some lack of rationale based on the trauma. I don't know a parent who has fgone through anything similar who has not been affected mentally, I ended up with PTSD and severedepression,and I never had the levelof SN to contend with r the sense of uncertainty that this lady had. So,not becuase of the value of the person, but becuase of the way a great many humans react to it- does that make sense? FrompeopleI know in RL,I amthe only onoe who didnt receive someformof counselling or pharmaceutical support to contend with dx,and thats only becuase the GP refused meds and I couldnt attend the counsellor becuase of childcare!

The no-MH at allmodel just doesn't ring true is all. not ime.

And I know she had a light sentence, I was only talking about In Peachy''s World ideas...
and as I said farfromreallenience,I would have locked her up before he was actually killed and prevented two lives from being completely ruined.

Cory i sort of agree,although my DH did try to bump himselfoffhe was so very unhappy. But there'smore to apersons pesonality than happiness- I know if itwereme I would find the lackofcontroland just things like ebing touched by somebody toher than closefamily incredibly difficult,becuase of who I am. That would certainly not justify anyone finishing me off, but would make me consider it in a few circs i think.

Peachy, that is really sad about your dh. But still clearly a difference between him trying to commit suicide and you deciding off your own bat that 'because you are disabled or because you are depressed, I am going to kill you', without even consulting him.

I think there might be circumstances under which I could kill myself. But I can't see myself taking that decision for somebody else.

For some people, of course, there is a direct relation between disability and depression: dd is only ever depressed when she is in pain or feeling unwell. But I still agree with you, Riven, that there is a tendency to put everything down to disability and somehow to see that as different to anything else that life can throw at you. Of course, it is sad that dd is depressed because she is in pain. But possibly not worse than my brother being depressed last year because of his messy divorce and subsequent alienation from his children. And I don't think anyone was really thinking in terms of a mercy killing, then.

The thing is, people kill themselves for all sorts of reasons: bad finances, career failures, marriages breaking down, ill health, abuse or trauma. But when did you ever hear of anyone who thought the kindest way to help the victim of sexual abuse or alienated father out of their misery would be to slip a little something into their tea? You just don't hear of that at all.

I am pretty sure that if I tried to relieve dd of her sufferings, noone would have any doubt that I was a murderess- despite the fact dd (unlike many disabled people) fulfills the criterion of genuine pain and suffering. And I can think of no other reason for this than that dd is a verbal communicating ordinary looking person who reminds NT people of themselves. So it's not actually about suffering, is it?

It's not really about mental capacity, either. If it was, then half the inmates of MIL's care home would have gone long ago. But then we all know, don't we, that we might end up senile one day, and we don't particularly fancy the idea that someone may be merciful to us...

It is about disabled people as "the other", in a place where we can't imagine ourselves.

I didn't read it like that cory- I read it as challenging those of us without disabilities who find it impossible to believe that a disabled person (especially ime a learning disabled person) could be as happy as we are. (or happier indeed).

People really really struggle with the idea that ds1's life can be as happy, fulfilled and worthwhile as ds2 and ds3's. They just can't get that (and give it away in the things they say which they don't even realise they are saying).

oh sorry that was in reply to your previous post.

I do agree with your last line in your last post.

I am sure that was how it was intended, saintlydame. All I am saying is that the idea that disabled people=happy still leaves a fair few people outside the fence as it were. There are disabilities that actually physically cause depression (dd's and ds's condition is thought to be one of them). I think one could still claim that you can have a worthwhile life without feeling happy all the time. That happy isn't the only criterion. But of course we need to keep banging on about the fact that disability does not per se spell miserable. And when we've got that into their heads we can move on to 'unhappy does not spell worthless'.

I have never heard of Martin Amis.
Peachy I do see where you are comming from, but i think we will never aggree.
I thik paople seem to try and find excuses for people when they do bad stuff too often, some people are just not good people, also sadly some people( I have even read it on here) think that a disabled person can be deemed as to have no life after meeting them for 5 minuits, so what chance do they have.

will google him later.