Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Harriett Sherwood reported for the Guardian on July 3 that:
A woman has admitted giving her terminally ill seven-year-old child a huge dose of morphine to end his suffering more than 40 years ago.As much as I share sympathy concerning the suffering Hamish experienced, there were other options than killing him.
Antonya Cooper said her son Hamish had experienced “horrendous suffering and intense pain” as a result of his stage four cancer and “beastly” treatment.
“On Hamish’s last night, when he said he was in a lot of pain, I said: ‘Would you like me to remove the pain?’ and he said: ‘Yes please, mama’,” Cooper, 77, told BBC Radio Oxford.
“And through his Hickman Catheter, I gave him a large dose of morphine that did quietly end his life.”
Further to that, Hamish was a child, he was not capable of consenting, but even more, his mother only asked him if he wanted the pain to go away. He wasn't asked if he wanted her to kill him.
When asked by Radio Oxford if her son knew that she was going to kill him, Cooper responded:
She said: “I feel very strongly that at the point of Hamish telling me he was in pain, and asking me if I could remove his pain, he knew, he knew somewhere what was going to happen.As sad as this story is, it shows how dangerous it is to legalize euthanasia. Once legal, similar cases of doctors killing their patients, without consent, will happen.
“But I cannot obviously tell you why or how, but I was his mother, he loved his mother, and I totally loved him, and I was not going to let him suffer, and I feel he really knew where he was going.”
She added: “It was the right thing to do. My son was facing the most horrendous suffering and intense pain, I was not going to allow him to go through that.”
Further to that, euthanasia is not legal in the UK and yet Cooper is promoting the case for expanding the law to killing children.
Hamish needed pain and symptom management. He needed care not to be killed.
As a hospice nurse practitioner there were other options. One of which was actually relieving his pain. This mother intentionally ended her own child’s life because she lacked the knowledge & advocacy to address her child’s pain. As difficult as it is to watch someone suffer, and I do understand the immediacy of the situation, this was murder.
ReplyDeleteI agree as we had a similar case and our son would be 65 yrs old now. Once diagnosed he was kept comfortable and we were with him although we had no help sleeping with him etc. things are so much better now . His worst times were before the diagnosis when neuroblastoma was harder to diagnosis. We took many years but have several children who helped move us along. He is our angel and now so many family are with him including my dear husband and his devoted daddy . Euthanasia is not the answer .He passed peacefully with us holding him with love . He was only 6 yrs old 🥲
Delete100% murder. This woman should be charged for murdering her child! It was her job to protect and provide for him, not take his life.
DeleteMy late partner, who was quadriplegic, always used to say “Suffering looks worse from the outside”. While the statement may seem to trivialize suffering, what’s really being communicated is that people can react in an extreme way to end someone’s suffering because they, themselves IMAGINE that the suffering is surely worse than death. Anyone with a couple of brain cells to rub together will point out the fallacy of such reasoning. I’m not religious, but I’m certain there is at least one of the Ten Commandments that is spot-on: Thou Shalt Not Kill! - Thomas Lester
ReplyDeleteWouldn’t the same morphine have helped to manage his pain?
ReplyDeleteI've done a lot of palliative care in the home. There was always a way to control the pain, always. Sometimes doctors with less palliative experience needed a push in the right direction, but I always made sure they passed away comfortably without ending their lives prematurely.
ReplyDeleteApparently, a perverted sense of morality believes that the law determines right and wrong. As if that the law justified the immorality of killing her son. Why don't we stop euphemizing the vocabulary and use the gentle words. Whose feelings are important that we want to go easy? A spade is still a shovel. Having repented is one thing, but to prompt such justification means she is still eating at her. And repentance means nothing to her. She'll have to answer to God at some point, and when she meets her son, what will he say when confronted with having killed thme one who trusted her with his life.
ReplyDeleteDcn Bill Gallerizzo
People do what they feel they need to do, rightly of wrongly. But why do they then need to foist their idea on everyone else?
ReplyDeleteAfter 40 years, this lady might be trying to assuage her burden of guilt.