OTTAWA, June 15 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Robert Latimer’s Supreme Court appeal of his sentence for gassing his 12-year-old disabled daughter in 1993, began yesterday with his lawyer arguing that he murdered out of love. Eddie Greenspan argued that it was “unforgivable” to suggest that “Bob and Laura Latimer ever acted out of anything but love.” Disability activists and their lawyers were incensed at the suggestion, pointing out that changes in law to allow for “compassionate homicide” (lesser penalties when murder is allegedly executed out of compassion) would lead to “open season on the disabled.” Pro-lifers emphasize that the open season would eventually extend to anyone who is considered, under constantly changing criteria, to be an unbearable burden to someone else. A child, parent, relative, or any seriously ill (e.g. aids, advanced arthritis, etc.) or injured person could be killed with minimal repercussions for the perpetrator.
Robert Fraser, a lawyer for the federal Attorney-General, warned that an exemption for compassion would be dangerously open to expansion. It wouldn’t be such a huge leap from absolving “compassionate killers,” he said, to absolving “passionate ones.” Pro-life groups note that once again Mr. Latimer is deliberately being portrayed as a sorrowful victim, when in truth his daughter was the victim. Compelling evidence in the case suggests that he acted, not to put his daughter out of her misery, but to put himself out of the misery of raising her with all the challenges that such responsibility would admittedly involve. Disability advocates and pro-life leaders are also concerned that a Supreme Court ruling of a reduced sentence for Latimer would require the federal government to legislatively define disabled Canadians as second-class citizens.
(Original source: National Post)