As residents in the Warden and Ellesmere area mourn a couple who were
fixtures in their neighbourhood, many are at a loss to figure out what terrible misery could have driven a man to kill his wife and then himself.
But Raymon Smith understands the feeling. Or at least he's afraid he might one day. The Toronto senior is caring for his spouse who's suffering from a variety of serious ailments. "My wife has Alzheimer's, congestive heart failure, anemic, and a diabetic. So it can be overwhelming."
He faces an impossible schedule and he's been forced to do it on his own, day after day, with no spare moments for himself. "I think everybody has a breaking point, and I guess Ed reached it," he surmises about the man found dead in his garage Wednesday morning. "And I don't want to do that."
Ray and Helen Smith have been together for more than 50 years. But as much as he loves his wife, he'd like to be able to find time for a small break during the day - even if it's just occasionally. Help is available but it's costly. Hiring a person to sit for just one day a month would set him back $500 - an amount he can't afford.
"Once a month," he muses with an audible note of fatigue in his voice. "Does that sound unreasonable?"
At which point his wife chimes in with a question of her own: "Do I get one, too?"
The
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition knows what people like Smith are facing. "We as a society have an obligation to insure that each of our citizens is accounted for," demands spokesman Hugh Scher. "And by that what I mean is that the support that they require is made accessible and available to them."
Ray knows that's a worthy goal that's not here yet. But at 70, he wonders how much longer he can manage this battle alone. "Maybe you don't notice it yourself, and I hope somebody tells me, like my kids: dad, it's time, you know ... [time to get] support or put her in one of the nice facilities to look after her," he concludes with a grimace.
So what keeps him going through it all? The same thing that always has. "We love each other," he answers simply.
- The issue will be front and centre when Toronto plays host to the first International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. It takes place at the end of November.
Those who support the idea of assisted suicide argue that pets are put down to avoid suffering and people shouldn't be made to bear pain when there's no hope of alleviating it. Opponents feel only God can take a life and it's impossible to know exactly when that life becomes unbearable.
The
Criminal Code of Canada contains two sections that appear to pertain to mercy killing:
"14. No person is entitled to consent to have death inflicted on him, and such consent does not affect the criminal responsibility of any person by whom death may be inflicted on the person by whom consent is given."
And
"241. Everyone who counsels a person to commit suicide or aids or abets a person to commit suicide, whether suicide ensues or not, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years."
But the truth is not even the law seems able to decide for sure what to do in different cases. Here's a look at some of the more famous instances of mercy killing and compassionate murder, and the different punishments accorded to those involved.
1985: Toronto
Lois Wilson helps her boyfriend drown himself after both believe he's been diagnosed with incurable stomach cancer. She pleads guilty and receives a six-month sentence.
1985: Montreal
Bruno Bergeron kills his 94-year-old Alzheimer-stricken wife with an axe because he can no longer care for her. He pleads guilty to the killing but receives a suspended sentence.
1990: Vancouver
David Lewis helps put an end to the lives of eight patients suffering from AIDS. He was going to be charged with murder, but the counts are never laid. Lewis refused to reveal the names of those he'd help die and there wasn't enough evidence to pursue further charges.
1993: Wilkie, Saskatchewan
Canada's most famous, controversial and heart-wrenching case. Farmer Robert Latimer feels his 12-year-old daughter, who has cerebral palsy, is suffering and that her pain will only get worse. So he places her in his truck, attaches a hose to his exhaust and puts her to sleep with carbon monoxide. His first-degree murder charge is reduced to a second-degree plea and amid cries of outrage from supporters, he's found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with no parole for ten years.
He gets a new trial over allegations of jury tampering and is again found guilty of second-degree murder in December 1997. But the judge surprises the country by ordering Latimer to serve two years less a day. After another appeal, the ten year sentence is re-imposed. The case reaches the Supreme Court in 2001, and the judges uphold the conviction and the sentence, noting a section of the Criminal Code allows for mercy - but that's not something they have the jurisdiction to rule on.
1994: Victoria
Another famous case. Terminally ill cancer patient Sue Rodriguez takes her right-to-die campaign all the way to the Supreme Court, which dismisses her appeal on the Criminal Code prohibitions against assisted suicide. A few months later, she convinces a physician to help end her life. Police investigate but no charges are laid.
1994: Halifax
Mary Jane Fogarty writes a suicide note on behalf of her friend, then provides her with a lethal dose of insulin. She was found guilty of aiding the suicide, but her sentence was suspended and she never served any jail time.
1994: Edmonton
Robert Cashin gives his terminally ill mother an overdose of sedatives. He is found guilty of administering a noxious substance and gets two years probation.
1996: Toronto
Maurice Genereux is a doctor who gave two HIV-positive patients enough barbiturates to allow them to deliberately overdose. He was jailed for two years.
1997: Halifax
Dr. Nancy Morrison gives a terminally ill and pain-wracked patient a deadly potassium chloride injection. Her first degree-murder charge is later reduced to manslaughter. But the case never reaches the court, because a judge decides there's not enough evidence to proceed.
2000: Montreal
Herbert Lerner kills his wife who is suffering from Alzheimer's. He's convicted of manslaughter and receives a 5-year sentence, because the judge rules the woman was only in the early stages of the disease and could have had a good quality of life for some time to come. A year later, Lerner himself commits suicide.
2001: Moncton, New Brunswick
A bizarre case involving two men, Richard Trites and Michael Breau. They helped a man named Dan Horsman kill himself. But the victim asked that it look like a murder so his wife could collect his insurance. The charges against Breau were dropped while Trites was found guilty. But his sentence was suspended.
2004: Montreal
A mother named Marielle Houle helps her sick son end his life. She's found guilty but her sentence is suspended.
Sources:
Right To Die Society and
Canadian government.