Mercy Killing Case Study

1066 Words3 Pages

It is a big question that most people often struggle with to decide when it is consider appropriate to assist an individual with mercy killing. In 1993, Robert Latimer a Saskatchewan farmer took the life of his twelve-year old daughter Tracy in an act of mercy killing. Latimer’s daughter suffered from the most dreadful form of cerebral palsy. She was severely disabled and had a mind of a four month old baby. Tracy was confined to a wheelchair and had endured multiple operations. She couldn’t walk, talk, or feed herself and she was in constant pain. After Robert Latimer learned that his daughter needed to go through another round of surgery, he knew he had to do something to save her from going through more pain. Therefore, Mr. Latimer decided …show more content…

Latimer did was morally wrong. But, when an individual is so severely disable with a poor quality of life and suffers from ongoing pain, one can then justify that it is morally right to assist with mercy killing. The morally wrong about this case was that Tracy did not have a choice in whether she wanted to live or die. It was all decided by her father that taking her life was the best solution for her. In other words, Mr. Latimer decided that Tracy would be better off dead instead of having another surgery. If the Supreme Court did not overturn Mr. Latimer conviction to second degree murder it would have set a bad precedent for people with disabilities. I agreed with The Council of Canadians with Disabilities that giving any lesser penalty will put thousands of people with disabilities in more danger of violence and death. Failure to be responsible for such crime against people with disabilities would be the wickedest form of discrimination. Tracy was placed on this earth for a purpose which we may not understand, but no one knew exactly what her wishes would have …show more content…

Utilitarianism is the view that the sole, ultimate standard of right and wrong is the principle of utility (Perez & Moore, pg. 135). There are two types of utilitarianism that describe the case of Robert Latimer. The Rule Utilitarianism focuses on the good of the entire community/society (Perez & Moore, pg. 140). For instance, in this situation there are some positive perspectives to ending Tracy’s life in the rule of utilitarianism. It makes calculation of good versus evil that relates to long term outcome and focuses on the best interest of the majority. Such as, freeing up resources for other individuals and less misery for the family. Act Utilitarianism focuses on individual happiness (Perez & Moore, pg. 140). For instance, in this concept the positive thing to ending Tracy’s life is taking her

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