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British Husband Not Charged for
Killing Wife Part Three of Four By Liz Townsend Based on new guidelines that accept "compassion" as a defense for killing a suicidal person, British prosecutors announced May 24 that they will not bring charges against Michael Bateman for placing a plastic bag over his wife Margaret's head while she breathed helium and died, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keir Starmer issued guidelines in February asserting that prosecution is not warranted when "compassion" is the "driving force" behind assisted suicide, the Telegraph reported. Based on this consideration, Bryan Boulter, the reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), decided against charging Bateman. "I concluded that a prosecution would not be in the public interest because Mrs Bateman, who had suffered from chronic pain for decades, had a clear and settled wish to commit suicide," he said, according to the Telegraph. "It was also clear that Mr Bateman was wholly motivated by compassion." Margaret Bateman was confined for her bed for three years, but her condition was never diagnosed, the Daily Mail reported. She died in October 2009 of oxygen starvation with her husband's assistance, which he freely admitted to prosecutors, according to the Daily Mail. Pro-lifers in Britain strongly criticized prosecutors for refusing to hold Bateman accountable for his wife's death. "This case makes clear what I suspected when the DPP's guidelines were first announced: that the killing of disabled or ill people would continue to go unpunished, but that the situation would further threaten the lives of sick and disabled people," said Alison Davis, national coordinator of disability rights group No Less Human, in a statement. Davis knows firsthand that the desire to die can be changed with proper care and support. She is disabled and had planned her own suicide at one time. "The Bateman case shows that the DPP's guidelines, and the actions of the CPS with his approval, will in fact have the effect of encouraging families or friends to kill so-called 'loved ones' and ensuring that suffering people like Mrs Bateman don't get the kind of help and support I had to continue living," she said. "It will mean that more disabled people will be killed out of misplaced 'compassion' and it will continue the pretence that 'courage' lies in killing suffering people, rather than in helping them to live." Please send your thoughts to daveandrusko@gmail.com. |
