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BY LifeSiteNews.com By Hilary WhiteEDINBURGH, July 22, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – During his trial for attempted murder, an Edinburgh pensioner told the court that he thought killing his disabled wife by smothering her with a pillow would “be a good thing to do … for both of us.”The Edinburgh High Court found John Millar, 67, guilty of attempted murder last week and has sentenced him to four and half years in prison. His wheelchair-bound wife, Phyllis Millar, has suffered from Multiple Sclerosis for 20 years and Millar was her primary caregiver. He pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder.Lady Justice Smith told Millar, “You quite deliberately tried to kill her. Fortunately, your wife was able to get one of her hands between her face and the pillow so as to enable her to breathe and to shout for you to stop."“Had she not been able to shout at you, it does not seem that your attempt to murder her would have stopped when it did.”The court was told that Millar walked into the bedroom of the couple’s home and asked his wife if she wanted to live. Phyllis replied that she did. He came back into the bedroom later and pushed a pillow over his wife’s face. After the attack, Millar called police and said, “I tried to kill my wife.” He later told officers he thought it would be “a good thing to do at the time” for both of them.The prosecuting attorney said that Phyllis “was quite clear throughout this investigation that she had not at any stage told the accused that she wanted her life to end, and had never requested his assistance to help her to die.”Given the “unusual and sad” nature of the case, Lady Justice Smith said that Millar’s lawyers had convinced her that because of the stress he had experienced, he did not deserve a custodial sentence. But the prison term was decided after Millar twice broke his bail conditions during the trial. Phyllis Millar has indicated that she wants her marriage, which began in 2008, to continue, but Smith insisted that Millar be closely supervised for 30 months following his release and recommended against returning Phyllis to his care. Witnesses described Millar as “too proud” to accept help in his wife’s care, despite the availability of public assistance programs. With public opinion in Britain leaning heavily towards legalizing assisted suicide for disabled people, the Director of Public Prosecutions last year announced that in cases where a killing can be shown to have been for “compassionate” motives, there is no “public interest” to prosecute. In this case, however, the victim survived and was able to inform the court that she did not wish to die.At the same time, some are pushing to have the law changed to allow outright “mercy-killing.” Tony Nicklinson, a 56 year-old engineer who was paralyzed by a stroke, is petitioning the courts to allow his wife to kill him by lethal injection because he is “fed up” with his condition. Anti-euthanasia activists continue to warn that such changes are a direct threat to legal protections for vulnerable disabled, ill and elderly people. They also point out that much of the call for legal euthanasia and assisted suicide comes from fears of pain and loss of dignity at the end of their lives among the world’s rapidly growing elderly demographic. Despite growing support for legal assisted suicide and killing in Britain, a major new global study has placed the UK at the top of the world league for palliative care. The study, released by the Economist Intelligence Unit, said Britain was top in the Quality of End-of-Life Care sub-category, which includes indicators such as public awareness, training availability, access to painkillers and doctor-patient transparency.The study noted that demands for euthanasia are coming largely from the public, fuelled by media coverage of high-profile euthanasia campaigners such as popular author Sir Terry Pratchett and Debbie Purdy, rather than from the palliative and hospice care profession. “If you look at the percentage of palliative care doctors who are opposed to assisted suicide in the UK, it’s over 90 per cent,” said David Praill of Help the Hospices. “This is a publicly driven debate and definitely not a hospice and palliative care driven one.”Alex Schadenberg of Canada’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition says he laments the fact that the media is stirring up fears of painful and undignified death; he pointed out that in the Canadian province of Quebec, from which comes much of the pro-euthanasia push in the country, palliative care is top of the line. “We now have better mechanisms for controlling pain than in any period in human history,” Schadenberg said. “Palliative-care units can offer patients good pharmaceutical pain control, psychological support, stress-releasing massage therapy, spiritual counsel, and music and art therapy."“Palliative care units attract numerous volunteers dedicated to providing patients company and friendship to ward off loneliness. If effective pain-control, care and support are available, why is euthanasia so attractive?” http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/edinburgh-pensioner-sentenced-in-attempted-murder-of-disabled-wife/

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