Rants & Ruminations on Ethics & Disability
Rants & Ruminations on Ethics & Disability
The Latimer Parole Verdict:
Deja Vous All Over Again? ... Or Not??
I first learned about the parole board’s December 5th decision not to grant Robert Latimer day parole via a rather euphoric e-mail from a friend of mine who is Temporarily Able-Bodied. The e-mail read simply:
“Heidi, check out the link. Justice done, in Canada, even.”
But when I followed the link to the CBC News story (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/12/05/latimer-parole-mtg.html), I found my reaction somewhat more muted, and even a little ambivalent. To be sure, the most significant aspect of this news story–and the development which indeed caused me to share my friend’s sense of euphoric relief at justice being done–was the basic fact that this parole board recognized the seriousness of the crime that Robert Latimer committed when, on October 24, 1993, he put his twelve-year-old daughter Tracy in the back of his pickup truck and gassed her to death. In its decision to deny Robert Latimer parole, the parole board plainly cites Latimer’s blatant lack of remorse as a crucial factor:
“The three-person panel of the National Parole Board said they were struck by Latimer's lack of insight into the crime he committed.”
Such discernment and insight into the actual nature of Robert Latimer’s actions are indeed a far, far cry from the able-ist rhetoric about Tracy Latimer’s murder being a “compassionate homicide,” as Justice Ted Noble ruled in Latimer’s second trial. In this sense, National Parole Board’s decision can legitimately be considered a quantum leap in the recognition and protection of Canadians with disabilities as having lives that are of equal value as the lives of nondisabled Canadians.
And yet, as I read the entirety of this CBC news story, as well as other stories about this verdict that have subsequently appeared in various mainstream media, I find myself increasingly unsettled and unsure about just how much the attitudes of the general population towards people with “severe” disabilities really have changed since Tracy Latimer was gassed to death by her father. For the authors of these news stories are again faithfully trotting out the tried-and-true descriptions of Tracy Latimer as someone who “could not walk, talk or feed herself,” and who “experienced severe pain,” and who “wore diapers,” as if they were some sort of Coles Notes index to explain why Robert Latimer’s case is “complex.”
But as someone who currently shares in at least four out of these five characteristics which are most often cited as grounds for deeming Tracy Latimer’s as a life unworthy of life, let me offer the following analysis of the parole board’s decision: Tracy Latimer is STILL DEAD. Her STILL UNREPENTANT murderer STILL NEEDS TO BE IN PRISON. -Heidi Janz
Friday, December 7, 2007