Sunday, September 20, 2009

Guideline on Prosecution of Assistants in Assisted Suicide

"Campaigners for assisted suicide have emphasised that the new guidance will not change the law but make the current position clearer.

"We are hoping that this will be a positive step and will give Debbie clarity about the kind of factors and situations which will encourage the DPP to prosecute and which will not," said a spokesperson from Dignity in Dying, which supported Purdy's case.

"We are hoping that for people in the situation of Debbie and [her husband] Omar it will be a helpful piece of prosecuting guidance. We are hopeful that it will be a positive step forward."

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Scapegoating Father Prevails with Biased Jury

Father wanted the apology to absolve his son of the responsibility for the suicide. Nothing will change the determination to die his son showed from childhood. If I were the gun owner, I would have countersued for the pain from having someone steal my gun and blast himself in my home. The suicider had no permission to take the gun. This verdict rewards a crime, theft.

"Following his son Brian’s suicide, Joseph Montes just wanted the boy’s stepfather to publish an apology as a warning to other people who keep guns in the house where they rear children.

While his request was clearly personal, the Baltimore scientist also viewed it as a public service that would “hit home.”

“That’s it,” Montes said last week, his face shaking. “That’s it.”

But Frank Eisler wouldn’t do it. He didn’t think the 16-year-old’s
death — from a 9mm shot to the head in the early morning of April 11, 2005 — was his fault.

So Montes sued. And after a year and a half of litigation, including a contentious three-day jury trial that ended Friday in Baltimore City Circuit Court, he won: $50,000 and a public assignment of blame to the man he believes could have done more to save his troubled son. "