Man shooting wife at hospital sparks mercy killing debate

JOHN Wise watched a tear roll down his wife's face as he stood alongside her bed in the intensive care unit.
She'd been unable to speak after suffering a stroke and seemed to be blinking to acknowledge him, Mr Wise confided to a friend who had driven him to the hospital.
So a week after Barbara Wise's stroke, investigators say, her husband fired a single round into her head. She died the next day, leading prosecutors to charge the 66-year-old man with aggravated murder in what police suspect was a mercy killing.
The shooting leaves authorities in a dilemma some experts say will happen with greater frequency in coming years as the baby boom generation ages - what is the appropriate punishment when a relative kills a loved one to end their suffering?

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So Would you want your love one to help you die if you were in extreme pain with no chance of recovery and was going to die anyway???
Or had say had a stroke and couldnt speak or move and was more like a vegetable and had no life but sit in a room and stare at the wallparer on the walls????

If it was like either of those yes I think I would want to just die.
I really wouldnt want my family to sit there and watch me fade away slowly and suffering in extreme pain.
It wouldnt be fair on them or me.

Okay, so my two cents on something like this....

First of all, I think with this day and age....a bullet to the head is not needed. I think they could have easily had a nurse sit in while "talking" to his wife, where the nurse or a police officer was able to see that they had a sort of "code" to talk to each other, ie. blinking to acknowledge, and then ask the questions, such as, honey, do you want to continue this fight or do you want taken out of your misery? Acknowledgement from nurse and police office that this conversation took place, they could then administer some medication that could have taken her out of the pain, or pulled her off of whatever life support she might have been on....instead of a bullet to the head.

I understand why he did what he did, but...he should have gone a different route. I don't necessarily think he deserves prison, but...he did kill someone, when there were other ways to handle this situation.

I guess in today's day and age, if you get married, and this is one of your worries....get it in writing and make it official...meaning, get it in writing and then have it stamped stating that both parties agree to the statement and then when the situation comes about, you have documentation that states that your wife or husband would rather not be in miserable pain, and at that point, the hospital and doctors have to abide by said statements.

That is just my two cents....take it for what its worth.

When an animal is sick or hurt and it's quality of life is never going to be good, living in pain etc for the rst of it's life then we as human's say it's inhumane to let them go through this. But for some reason it isn't inhumane to let a person suffer for so many years?

It's a tough one I know.

I agree. I think its inhumane to have have someone suffer, however....who's call is it really to take that said "person" or "animal" out of its misery?

Like you said, it's a tough call.

Yeah there would need to be a mix of factors to be considered before making what is a tough decsion. It's a very tough and emotional situation for a person to be put in.

I would prefer not to pointlessly suffer but would prefer a lethal dose of morphine to being shot.

De facto euthanasia is, I suspect, a common enough practice.

There are medical ways in which to help one in passing....a bullet....sounds painful and cruel.

Wow. That's rough.

First off, what a terrible idea to bring a gun into an intensive care unit. And then...he fired the bullet into her head and she died the next day. Oh my goodness! He didn't even have the wherewithal to do it cleanly.

Second, as Drgnfly said, a witness to her consent would have been at least supportive to his case.

Does he deserve punishment? By law, he murdered her, didn't he? I think it was heartbreaking for him to make that decision but I don't think he made the right choice.

I don't know about Australia, but here, we have hospice where people are basically sent to die - People like the woman in the OP. One of the things that they do there is make them as comfortable as possible since there is no treatment that will make them well again. They may be in great annoyance, but not actual pain.

Yeah, there are certainly more humane ways to have handled it (assuming). A bullet to the head seems rather cruel and a bit contradictory in that when a person gets to that point of not wanting to see their loved one go on suffering anymore it's in part because they themselves can't take the sight of it all, it's too painful...Shooting them,..having that mental picture haunt you is just so bizzar to me, I can't wrap my head around it...I couldn't even stand to go and see my dog get put down, hubby had to do it...
I know everyone is different, but a bullet just seems way over the top to me; the fact that she didn't die instantly makes it even more gruesome. My God, was she aware til the end, and in pain? I wonder.

No I agree a bullet is not the way to go. When a said I agreed I didnt mean been shot I meant if you want to die because of an illness thats going to kill you anyway you should be allowed to die. But here if you do kill someone because of there illness yes you could go to jail. And we too have hospice care here.

I wouldn't ever want anyone to help me die, but then I'd expect my relatives to respect my wishes regardless of what they want. I think people should have the right to choose for themselves.

I do think euthanasia should be legal in some cases, but there are many cases where it's just too grey morally speaking. If the patient can't make the choice for themselves then killing them leaves the person open to prosecution in what's already a rather delicate situation and there's always the question of whether it's what the person wants.

A bullet to the head isn't the way to do it though, just a bit too reminiscent of when horses lose races and have to be put down.

And this is why it is important for you to have a living will outlining your preferences for health care directives (i.e., what actions should be taken in regards to your health if you're no longer able to make those decisions or do anything about them and who gets to be the one to make those decisions?).

Granted, unless you're on life support or in an "emergency" situation that requires some lifesaving procedure, then asking your loved one's docs to euthanize them most likely isn't going to happen for legal reasons. But, hey, clearly writing out in advance that "my spouse has permission to shoot me in the head if I end up in x, y, or z situation" might carry some weight.