Politics
Monday January 30, 2006
Montreal Woman gets Three Years Probation for Euthanasia of Son
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
MONTREAL, January 30, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Montreal woman, Marielle Houle, who pleaded guilty to killing her son Charles Fariala using sleeping pills and a plastic bag, has been sentenced to three years probation. Houle had pleaded guilty to a charge of assisting the suicide of her son, a playwright and student suffering from multiple sclerosis and apparent depression. The maximum penalty for assisted suicide is 14 years.
Houle’s lawyer, Salvatore Mascia, described her crime as an act of “unconditional love.” The Crown, however, said that while Houle’s intentions may have been “compassionate,” Canada is not a society that tolerates euthanasia. The court’s leniency was likely due to Houle’s “fragile” mental and physical health.
Alex Schadenberg, head of Ontario’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, told LifeSiteNews.com that not only should a more serious penalty be leveled, Houle should have been charged with second degree murder.
“It’s only suicide when you do it to yourself,” Schadenberg said. “But in the court hearings, Houle admitted that she put the bag over his head. When he fell asleep, then she put the bag over his head and tied it tight. If he died of suffocation, it was murder not assisted suicide.”
The executive director of the Canadian euthanasia advocacy group, Dying with Dignity, said in a radio interview that Fariala would not have qualified for assisted suicide according to their rules which require that a person be no more than six months away from death from a terminal illness.
Diane Rivard spokesman for Canada’s MS society in Quebec, said Houle's case is tragic and she didn't deserve a severe sentence but that the case highlights the need for better home care and support for people diagnosed with incurable, but livable, diseases like MS.
Rivard said, “We want people to know that after a diagnosis of MS there is still a good life, an active life.”
Schadenberg, however, said that the three year probation fails as a deterrent and that his group will be demanding a federal review. He said, “We understand the health condition of Houle but we also recognize that if there is no deterrent for the act of assisted suicide that there may be others who will follow Houle's lead.”
“We are going to ask the new minister of justice, when he or she is appointed, that his case be reviewed. It is up to them to do the right thing. On February 6th, the new justice minister is going to receive a formal request for a review because there is no deterrent involved in this case,” said Schadenberg.
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Pro-Lifer Attacked with SUV, Alleged Attacker Charged
- Huckabee Hashes Out Abortion Arguments with Comedian Jon Stewart
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Amnesty International Caught in "One Big Lie"
- Editorial: Archbishop Weisgerber is Wrong - Vatican Stopped its Donation to UNICEF in 1996
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Government of Trinidad and Tobago: No Homosexual "Weddings," No Abortion
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.