Foul Justice - Robert Latimer to promote "mercy killing" at Oxford University.

Inclusive Humanity is an excellent source of news opinion and issues related to disability. A few days ago, Inclusive Humanity published the following article under the title: Foul Justice. Link to the Inclusive Humanity website.

Foul Justice: Something Rotten in the State of Our Criminal Justice System

Something has happened in the universe. There has been some kind of upending between right and wrong and while I normally really like to play in the grey between black and white, there is something sinister and covert about a recent turn of events that I want you all to be aware of.

According to the Globe and Mail, Robert Latimer has been granted special dispensation from the Parole Board of Canada allowing him to travel outside of Canada -skirting the the normal limits Canada’s parole guidelines.

Moreover he has been granted this privilege in order to be a guest panelist at an Oxford University event in England debating the merits of “mercy killing” and end of life ethics.

Tracy Latimer

So essentially here is how this plays out. This man who admitted to murdering hid daughter Tracy because of the pain widely assumed she was experiencing due most significantly to the fact Tracy was living with Cerebral Palsy, has been granted the right to travel to a foreign country to sit on a panel as an “expert” by the very legal system in Canada that deemed his actions illegal and punishable by conviction and imprisonment. The very criminal justice system that convicted him is now allowing him to travel to one of the most prestigious universities in the world to “make the case” for mercy killing of the disabled.

Have I missed anything? Unfortunately not.

Approximately a year ago I was invited to prepare a brief and present it to the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on End of Life and Compassionate Care in this country. I was honored to be asked to speak specifically to the concerns of citizens with disabilities and their families about the dangerous paradigm of being vulnerable in a medical scarcity paradigm, in which time and time again, it has been proven that many in community see the ending of life as the only appropriate response to disability.

I guess Canada’s parole board didn’t read the committee’s report. Oh wait, that’s right, the report finally published failed to include the “disability perspective” in it’s narrative. It is rumoured to be published at a “latter date”.

I figure they better hurry up… soon it will be to late for all of us.