two manslaughter verdicts
Two court cases bothering me at the minute.
One, Jacob Wragg, a disabled ten year old, was smothered by his own father, and the father was convicted of manslaughter instead of murder. Two, David Morley, beaten to death by a group of teenagers in an utterly motiveless and random outburst of violence, and the verdict is again manslaughter.
What's so terrible about the first case is its correspondence with the idea that people with disabilities can be killed, or assisted in dying, on the basis either that their life isn't worth living any more, or that they are too much trouble for their carers. I can't describe the horror that I experienced just from reading the account of how one disabled woman in hospital was too scared to go to sleep in case they "helped" her to die. The callousness of ever imagining that a solution, something to be offered to people to help them, could ever consist of putting an end to their life. Particularly, you see, when we aren't taking steps to improve the quality and availability of good palliative care for people with serious illnesses, or the quality and availability of support for people with disabilities.
The second case is appalling in a different way - the way that randomly inflicted cruelty is seen by some people as fun, funny, or somehow an acceptable way of passing an evening. It shows a disregard for other people's welfare which is total: even the solidarity which the group showed at the time of beating up this man (not to mention the other people they attacked on the same night) - even that disintegrated once they were in trouble with the police, when they tried putting the blame on each other and playing down their own individual part. Who knows how much a person's environment and company and background contributes to them reaching a place where they shake off all restraints and end up with that kind of complete indulgence of their self-ish instincts: what kind of a society do we have, when this is the kind of behaviour that emerges from it.
But this really is our society, not just some horrible blip that other people are guilty of ... there but for the grace of God goes any one of the rest of us ... so the question isn't just how to deal with "those" people, but how we're going to collectively react. Well, there is in fact a precedent, available for anyone who wants to, to follow.
One, Jacob Wragg, a disabled ten year old, was smothered by his own father, and the father was convicted of manslaughter instead of murder. Two, David Morley, beaten to death by a group of teenagers in an utterly motiveless and random outburst of violence, and the verdict is again manslaughter.
What's so terrible about the first case is its correspondence with the idea that people with disabilities can be killed, or assisted in dying, on the basis either that their life isn't worth living any more, or that they are too much trouble for their carers. I can't describe the horror that I experienced just from reading the account of how one disabled woman in hospital was too scared to go to sleep in case they "helped" her to die. The callousness of ever imagining that a solution, something to be offered to people to help them, could ever consist of putting an end to their life. Particularly, you see, when we aren't taking steps to improve the quality and availability of good palliative care for people with serious illnesses, or the quality and availability of support for people with disabilities.
The second case is appalling in a different way - the way that randomly inflicted cruelty is seen by some people as fun, funny, or somehow an acceptable way of passing an evening. It shows a disregard for other people's welfare which is total: even the solidarity which the group showed at the time of beating up this man (not to mention the other people they attacked on the same night) - even that disintegrated once they were in trouble with the police, when they tried putting the blame on each other and playing down their own individual part. Who knows how much a person's environment and company and background contributes to them reaching a place where they shake off all restraints and end up with that kind of complete indulgence of their self-ish instincts: what kind of a society do we have, when this is the kind of behaviour that emerges from it.
But this really is our society, not just some horrible blip that other people are guilty of ... there but for the grace of God goes any one of the rest of us ... so the question isn't just how to deal with "those" people, but how we're going to collectively react. Well, there is in fact a precedent, available for anyone who wants to, to follow.
... there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. ... My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge ... thou hast forgotten the law of thy God ...
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself: but in Me is thy help.
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously ... Hosea 4v1-6; 13v9; 14v1-2
posted by cath at
12:45 am
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