Robert Latimer
- Thread starter Said1
- Start date
If you think we're able to remain emotionally distant, you really don't understand our work. That's something docs are taught I think:lol:. It's true that we don't love those babies like their parents do. But, I've also worked with a lot of parents who distance themselves emotionally (they won't call or visit for weeks or months). It's a self defense mechanism and I don't judge them for it. I suspect Robert Latimer did it. His daughter had been living in a group home for about 3 months before he brought her home and killed her. He decided to kill her almost 2 weeks before he actually did it. The only way he could have done that was to separate himself from her a little emotionally IMO. He didn't even stay with her when she died. He tried to cover up what happened afterwards. Those to me are the actions of someone who wasn't overwraught with emotions.
I can't imagine what it would be like to watch my own child live a disabled life. But, other parents do it and don't kill their kids. Stress doesn't excuse murder completely, it only mitigates the punishment for the crime. I don't have any right to judge Robert Latimer. The legal system and any higher power he believes in will do that. All I have the right to is my opinion on what's right and what's wrong, just like everybody else. In this case, the legal system agrees with me. Sometimes it doesn't.
No, we can't. So, we try to make the best decision we can at the time. For a child capable of experiencing happyness, capable of smiling at her parents, capable of breathing on her own and eating without medical intervention, our society says we have to err on the side of giving her a chance to live rather than kill her.
Ahem, err on the side of giving her a chance? I'm beside myself in thinking that it could possibly be an "error" to give someone the chance to live. Your choice of words is poor to say the least. You suggest that allowing someone to pursue life may be an error while killing her would certainly be proper. :roll:
It's tongue and cheek. You may not have noticed that I seem to be in the minority when I suggest Robert Latimer was wrong to kill his child. Tracy Latimer fit that criteria.
For you lonewolf:
Robert Latimer originally claimed Tracy died in her sleep. It wasn't until toxicology reports proved she died of carbon monoxide poisoning that he admitted he killed her. http://www.normemma.com/latimer_chronology.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Latimer
At first Robert Latimer maintained that Tracy had died in her sleep; however, when confronted by police with autopsy evidence that high levels of carbon monoxide were found in Tracy's blood, Latimer confessed that he had killed her by placing her in his truck and connecting a hose from the truck's exhaust pipe to the cab. He said he had also considered other methods of killing Tracy, including Valium overdose and "shooting her in the head".[5]
He planned to kill her nearly 2 weeks before actually doing it and considered several methods.
http://dawn.thot.net/Tracy_Latimer.html
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]When did Robert Latimer decide to kill his daughter? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In his confession, Robert Latimer said he decided to kill Tracy 12 days prior to actually committing the murder. He made the decision after learning Tracy's doctor had offered surgery to remedy Tracy's pain from a chronic hip dislocation[/FONT]
http://www.ccdonline.ca/issues/euthanasia/reflectionsmedia.htm
Also, missing from most coverage was the part of Latimer's confession where he indicated that October 12, 1993, the day that the social worker suggested that they consider placing Tracy permanently in a group home, was the day he began planning out how to kill his daughter. He considered shooting her or burning her to death before arriving at his final plan.
Robert Latimer originally claimed Tracy died in her sleep. It wasn't until toxicology reports proved she died of carbon monoxide poisoning that he admitted he killed her. http://www.normemma.com/latimer_chronology.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Latimer
At first Robert Latimer maintained that Tracy had died in her sleep; however, when confronted by police with autopsy evidence that high levels of carbon monoxide were found in Tracy's blood, Latimer confessed that he had killed her by placing her in his truck and connecting a hose from the truck's exhaust pipe to the cab. He said he had also considered other methods of killing Tracy, including Valium overdose and "shooting her in the head".[5]
He planned to kill her nearly 2 weeks before actually doing it and considered several methods.
http://dawn.thot.net/Tracy_Latimer.html
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]When did Robert Latimer decide to kill his daughter? [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In his confession, Robert Latimer said he decided to kill Tracy 12 days prior to actually committing the murder. He made the decision after learning Tracy's doctor had offered surgery to remedy Tracy's pain from a chronic hip dislocation[/FONT]
http://www.ccdonline.ca/issues/euthanasia/reflectionsmedia.htm
Also, missing from most coverage was the part of Latimer's confession where he indicated that October 12, 1993, the day that the social worker suggested that they consider placing Tracy permanently in a group home, was the day he began planning out how to kill his daughter. He considered shooting her or burning her to death before arriving at his final plan.
Thanks, Tracy. I will read up on it. My recollections are based on much-sanitized Court reports on the TV news.
Woof!
Woof!
No worries guys. The coverage of this event was very slanted in favor of Robert Latimer. I can understand that because he's a person worthy of sympathy, but I don't think we need to ignore the facts to feel sympathetic.
Few people seem to be aware that they placed her in a home for 3 months before she died or that they refused to allow a feeding tube which may have given them more options for pain medication. Few people seem to know how long he planned the actual killing or that he tried to cover it up afterwards. Few people know that Tracy wasn't in a vegetative state or that her pain was not constant. Few people know that her mother had described her as cheerful in her journals not too long before her father killed her. These all go a ways in explaining how I can feel sorry for Robert Latimer, but I don't see him as a completely blameless martyr.
Few people seem to be aware that they placed her in a home for 3 months before she died or that they refused to allow a feeding tube which may have given them more options for pain medication. Few people seem to know how long he planned the actual killing or that he tried to cover it up afterwards. Few people know that Tracy wasn't in a vegetative state or that her pain was not constant. Few people know that her mother had described her as cheerful in her journals not too long before her father killed her. These all go a ways in explaining how I can feel sorry for Robert Latimer, but I don't see him as a completely blameless martyr.
Even if she was everything the media made her out to be... in a vegetative state, in constant pain, all options exercised and unsuccessful.... I would feel sorry for him (as I do) but I still would feel the courts had made the right choice to jail him. Given the vast number of options I've seen in the medical community for helping to end a life, there's no reason for someone to undertake such a thing at home.
Maybe she didn't die in vain, maybe we all benifit by the empathy we feel for both father and daughter.
Robert Latimer granted full parole: lawyer
Robert Latimer walks on his farm in 2001 before being sentenced to life with no change
of parole for 10 years. On Nov. 29, 2010, he was granted full parole.
VICTORIA—Robert Latimer, the Saskatchewan farmer who killed his severely disabled daughter, has been granted full parole and will be home by Christmas, says his lawyer.
I'm happy this family can finally try to move forward from this now.
Robert Latimer walks on his farm in 2001 before being sentenced to life with no change
of parole for 10 years. On Nov. 29, 2010, he was granted full parole.
VICTORIA—Robert Latimer, the Saskatchewan farmer who killed his severely disabled daughter, has been granted full parole and will be home by Christmas, says his lawyer.
I'm happy this family can finally try to move forward from this now.
The wheels of justice are slow. Too bad he had to endure such suffering for an act of compassion. Gives meaning to the saying "Democracy - tyranny of the majority" .
Latimer, by every legal standard, was guilty of First Degree Murder of his own daughter. He planned and carried out the execution of his daughter, Tracy, because she was INCONVENIENT. This was never a case of 'dying with dignity', since that only involves cases of assisted suicide of an adult. This was the malicious destruction of a human life, and Robert Latimer should have received the maximum under Canadian Law, which is a 25 years before eligibility for parole. There is absolutely NO difference between what he did and what Josef Mengele did at Aushwitz, by determining by his own standards, whose life was worth living, and whose life should be taken as being a 'useless eater'.
... Or, Lattimer can hire Khadr's lawyer and sue the gvt for millions 'cause he doesn't like jail.
Well that's your opinion, but the courts ruled and he sucked it up and did his time. This wasn't just endured by Robert Latimer, it was endured by his whole family - and the right thing to do is let the family live in peace now. If you are ever in his shoes and faced with such a decision, we know what you THINK you would do. But until you are faced with such a heart wrenching choice, you can throw all the rhetoric you like at the situation, but you do so in ignorance.
btw - you just invoked Godwin's Law, which automatically renders your comment invalid.
I have to ask:
Do you know that Tracey was in incredible pain? That pain was so bad that they were planning to amputate her legs to prevent some of the agonizing pain from her constant hip displacements?
I believe Latimer acted with her best interests at heart, to avoid more pain and mutilation being heaped upon the unfortunate child.......and I think the method he used points to his basic motivation.....mercy.
Yet he killed.
Manslaughter, IMHO.........he should have served a year.....
BTW, the ONLY reason he got 10 years was it is the mandatory minimum........a great argument against that (lack of) process.