UK : Mids : Man to be sentenced over hospital suicide

[General Lighting]

Having seen my own father deteriorate from terminal illness I've got sympathy for both of them but there are other less dramatic ways of ending life with less risk and trauma...But IMO if Dad really felt shooting himself was the best way out from what was probably a painful and distressing condition he should have done so away from the NHS hospital facilities as its not fair on hospital workers etc (and why spend time and resources treating him if he is only going to end his own life?)

it also does seem a bit chilling in these days of deteriorating social cohesion that an otherwise middle class law abiding citizen has gone to all the effort of obtaining an illegal firearm - if he can get guns like that what else might he have been planning to d with them? As an aside, the weapon used was the pistol best known in this country for being associated with James Bond!

the teacher isn't that smart IMO. he might get time in jail now and is almost certain to lose his career when he could have just sent his dad to one of the foreign nations where euthanasia is legal or got him some morphine, barbiturates or similar drug

A music teacher, who admitted giving his father a gun so he could shoot himself dead in hospital, is due to be sentenced at Leicester Crown Court.


Guy Button handed the Walther PPK handgun to his 63-year-old father Ian, who was terminally ill, in a packed ward at Northampton General Hospital on October 20 last year.
The 30-year-old, of Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire, earlier admitted two charges of possessing an illegal firearm.
He also pleaded guilty to two charges of passing an illegal firearm on to his father Ian.
Once Mr Button's father had been handed the gun, he drew the curtain round his bed before shooting himself in the head.

[joshd96320]

feel for both of them

could have used a less extreme method though :-/

[General Lighting]

Originally posted by joshd96320

feel for both of them

could have used a less extreme method though :-/

exactly, it will have made a big mess in the hospital and possibly damaged the walls. The NHS will have to do a massive health and safety report with the Police and that will take up resources better used for treating people..

That said I think human euthanasia should be allowed in this country provided there are sufficient safeguards (to stop old people being killed off for their inheritances etc)

[General Lighting]

The son has been handed a sentence of 3 years jail. I think its a fair sentence as its normally 5 years for having an illegal firearm and the judge said he wasn't actually sentencing him for assisting his fathers suicide but merely for being involved in the provision of the gun in a country where we aren't supposed to have them!

it does appear that the gun was dad's property, but why was the family keeping it in the first place, along with 19 live rounds? if it had been a ethnic minority family there would be anti terrorist squad at their house I bet...

"It was put that you were in an impossible position, which I do not accept, but it was a very difficult one. This case is unique in the experience of those involved. It should be understood though, how serious it is. This was a working automatic handgun with live ammunition introduced into a hospital, into a public ward, and in fact it was used in a public ward. The sentence I pass is three years."

Son who gave father gun faces jail - Yahoo! News UK

[joshd96320]

Originally posted by General Lighting

I think its a fair sentence as its normally 5 years for having an illegal firearm and the judge said he wasn't actually sentencing him for assisting his fathers suicide but merely for being involved in the provision of the gun in a country where we aren't supposed to have them!

fair play