Baga, Jasmin HUMSS111-C LUALHATI BAUTISTA

Situation B

Tracy Latimer, a 12-year-old victim of cerebral palsy, was killed by her father in 1993. Tracy
lived with her family on a prairie farm in Saskatchewan, Canada.

On a Sunday morning, while his wife and other children were at church, Robert Latimer (father)
put Tracy in a cab of his pickup truck and piped in exhaust fumes until she died. At the time of
her death, Tracy weighed less than 40 pounds; she was described as “functioning at the mental
level of a three-month-old baby.” Mrs. Latimer (mother) said that she was relieved to find Tracy
dead when she arrived home and added that she “didn’t have the courage” to do it herself. Robert
Latimer was tried for murder and was later on paroled in 2008.

Putting legal questions aside, (1.) did Mr. Latimer’s action right or wrong? (2.) Why or why not?
Explain.

Robert Latimer deemed that Tracy was better off dead and that he killed her out of
love, but who has the right to determine who should live and who should die? When I
first read Situation B, it feels like ridiculous to kill a child in your own way and for me, it’s
really devastating as a reader because I am also a child and I have sisters. I dug a little
information about this case in Saskatchewan, Canada it is hard to accept that it is based
on a true story. As I read the information, at first I really don’t know which side I’m on. It
gives me chills and at the same time, I felt like my heart was stabbed by a knife when I
read it. On the side of Mr. Robert Latimer and Mrs. Latimer, I think they also do not want
to make their kid suffer from a disease called cerebral palsy. It is called mercy killing.
Robert killed Tracy because he could no longer stand watching his daughter suffering
from all the pain she was going through.

What Robert Latimer did was morally wrong, yet when an individual is severely
disabled with a poor quality of life and experiences continuous pain and suffering, one
would then be able to justify that it is morally right to assist with mercy killing. The wrong
side about this was that Tracy did not have a choice in whether she wanted to live or die.
It was completely settled by her father that ending her life was the best solution or
answer for her. Tracy was put on this planet for a reason and purpose to live which we
may not see and understand however, no one exactly knew what her wishes in life would
have. The word euthanasia means good death it is referring to the manner in which one
dies of quickening the death process. Robert Latimer valued her rights as his daughter
unfortunately, he did not value her rights as a human being.