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Monday, July 09, 2007

A time to heal

A New Zealand man is furious that the man who murdered his daughter will receive a bone-marrow transplant to treat his leukaemia. The operation is expected to cost perhaps up to a million dollars, much of that going to provide two guards around the clock while the murderer is in hospital.


The father, David Gunn, told the media,


He's sick. Rather than spend a million dollars on him, just spend a few dollars on an ounce of lead.


New Zealand has no death penalty. The murderer was sentenced to a minimum non-parole period of 21 years (which means he can’t be considered for parole before then). This is one of the New Zealand’s longest non-parole sentences.


The father also said,


They're going to pay over a million dollars for this bloody operation. I'd prefer him to rot in hell.

But a spokesperson for the Tauranga branch of the Sensible Sentencing Trust, Ken Evans, expressed the views of many New Zealanders when he said,


I believe his offending has to be dealt with by the courts and I think his medical condition is something the medical system of New Zealand has to deal with as it would with any other person who has a similar illness.


According to the Department of Corrections, while prisoners receive primary health care through the Department, they’re considered for secondary and tertiary health care under the same eligibility criteria as all members of the public.


Refusing treatment would amount to a death sentence, a penalty that doesn’t exist in law. The murderer’s offending has been dealt with by the courts. It seems to me that if the sentence isn’t severe enough, that’s a matter for the politicians to change in the future.


Deliberately withholding life-saving treatment from anyone seems immoral to me and the equivalent of executing the person. A society is judged, among other things, by the quality of its mercy. Given that murderers can’t be executed, if we sit back and let the murderer die, wouldn’t that then be a kind of murder, too?


What do you think? Should a convicted murderer get life-saving medical treatment?

4 comments:

Jimmi said...

Yes he should get the treatment just like anyone else would. Because he was given a sentence that he should serve out fully. I am not a fan of the death penalty because I don't think that the person really truly gets the full impact of what they did wrong. Let them rot in Jail, not hell, because I think that would be more miserable. I do think however that they shouldn't be allowed very may privileges. I don't know about New Zealand but in the US they get too many luxuries .

Jason in DC said...

Yes the guy should get the treatment. To do otherwise would be wrong.

I have to say I don't have problems with the death penalty as long as those people convicted of it are given a fair trial and access to proper representation.

If you want to read a book that will really make you think about the death penalty then read The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town by John Grisham. It points out how much money plays in to the type of defense someone can get in the US.

Arthur Schenck said...

I'm not a big fan of the death penalty. Eye witness testimony is unreliable and forensic and even DNA testing isn't 100% accurate (though getting closer all the time). In any case, I think we lose a bit of our humanity when we kill someone, no matter how justified it may seem at the time. I just don't see how vengeance or revenge makes humanity better. Arguably, removing human rubbish would be a good thing in some ways, but again, how are we as a species lifted up by killing a killer?

Jason makes a good point about trials. The reason many poor and black people end up on death row is the lack of a fair trial and proper representation. To then kill them for because they weren't rich enough to buy their way our seems to me to add another dimension to the immorality.

MgS said...

There's a difference between justice and revenge.

The father's seeking revenge. (I do not blame him, but I certainly do not agree with his goals either)

I have never believed that death is an appropriate punishment for a crime - no matter how vile the act may have been. Killing someone smacks of revenge; forcing them to live with the consequences of their actions is just punishment.

- But then, I'm a Canuck - another one of those odd countries that doesn't have the death penalty.