Jasper Edge Synthesis Essay: Gentlemen, Your Verdict & Compassionate Homicide: The Law and Robert Latimer

Compassionate Homicide or Murder?

Thursday, January-16-14

Robert Latimer killed his 12 year old daughter. (Compassionate Homicide pg 1) Captain
Oram arranged the death of fifteen.
Bruce- pg 25) (Tigers of the Snow- Gentlemen, Your Verdict, By Michael

The reader of such information would be shocked. The first thought to

come to mind is cold blooded murder, committed by people in places of authority over their victims. These stories, and the stories of many others fall into the grey area of the law. Compassionate homicide is very controversial issue, is it murder or an act of love? The fictional story Gentlemen, Your Verdict and the news article

Compassionate Homicide: The Law and Robert Latimer both look at this issue and
leave the reader to make a moral decision for himself. Compassionate homicide in its true form should be made legal so the surviving parties are not persecuted for their act of caring. However, not all murderers claiming to have committed compassionate homicide are in fact innocent. Therefore each case needs to be looked at separately, not all bunched under one category, allowing the guilty to go unpunished for their actions.
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In the case of Gentlemen, Your Verdict, the circumstances were almost unique. During WWII Captain Oram, poisoned fifteen of his twenty man submarine crew. The submarine was stuck at the bottom of the ocean with no chance of rescue for seven days. The oxygen supply would last all of them two days only. Oram made the choice to poison many so that a few could survive. He selected the five men with families to survive and reported None of the others had the least idea of what I intended on

doing the entire responsibility is mine.

(Tigers of the Snow- Gentlemen, Your Verdict, By Michael Bruce- pg. 25) This

was an important

part of the story because it then creates the issue of who can be held accountable for the death of the other fifteen. Oram committed suicide to stay with his submarine, resulting in his trial being held post-mortem. Some would ask if it is necessary to court-martial Oram after he had already fulfilled the highest sentence. Trials such as this are necessary to give the families of the deceased some answers and a degree of closure. Also the ruling of the jury and judge would set a precedent for any similar future incidents. Because this incident occurred during a time of war and Oram was in command of the crew, the decisions he made have to be looked at differently. He did what he thought was the right thing to do to enable the survival of as many men in his

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safe guard as the situation permitted. It is in circumstances such as this that exceptions from normal punishment should be allowed.

Tracy was a 40-pound quadriplegic, a 12-year-old who functioned at the level of a three-month old. She had been repeatedly operated on could not walk, talk or feed herself [and] was in constant excruciating pain.
(Compassionate Homicide pg 1)

This sums up

the home life of Robert Latimer, the loving father of Tracy. Latimer had to work his farm and also care for Tracys every need. After he killed Tracy, he said it was not a self-motivated killing but he could

not bear to watch her suffer.

(Compassionate Homicide pg 1)

In 1993 he

was charged with first degree murder, but a year later convicted of second degree murder. In 1997, in a retrial, Latimer was once again convicted of second degree murder. He was eventually given 25 years, with no parole for 10 years. It is clear that Latimer was no threat to society. He was not going to go around murdering the helpless members of society. Despite this, the law would not allow an exception to be upheld resulting in Latimer facing cruel and unusual punishment.
(Compassionate Homicide pg 2)

Latimers case

was watched very carefully, retrial after retrial, sentences overruled again and again.
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The reason the case was so important was it set a precedent for all future compassionate homicide cases in Canada.

The fact that the law is unable to protect people like Latimer from unjust imprisonment because of actions of love and caring is quite disappointing. The courts are unable to look at each case separately and with an unbiased approach. All cases are bunched under one umbrella, for the fear that if exemptions are made once, people will begin to abuse the system. It shows a problem not just with the legal system but with society. Unfortunately there are members of society who will use positions of power to mistreat and in some cases murder disabled people. It is because of people like this that the legal system is forced to make blanket laws that condemn all who perform compassionate homicide.

The fact that the law is unable to protect people like Latimer from unjust imprisonment because of actions of love and caring is quite disappointing. The courts are unable to look at each case separately and with an unbiased approach. All cases are bunched under one umbrella, for the fear that if exemptions are made once, people will
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begin to abuse the system. It shows a problem not just with the legal system but with society. Unfortunately there are members of society who will use positions of power to mistreat and in some cases murder disabled people. It is because of people like this that the legal system is forced to make blanket laws that condemn all who perform compassionate homicide.

Works Cited: Bruce, M. (1973). Gentlemen, Your Verdict.

Tigers of the Snow (pp. p. 21-27). Toronto:

Thomas Nelson and Sons. Compassionate Homicide: The Law and Robert Latimer. (2010, December 6). CBC News. Retrieved March 4, 2013, from http://ww w.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2010/12/06/f-

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