Canada: As desperation leads woman to suicide, husband's fate hangs in balance

Description:

Jobless, homeless and stranded in an unfamiliar city, Yanisa Fonteece decided to kill herself with sleeping pills on a glacial day in Thunder Bay a year ago. She asked her husband not to interfere as she choked and vomited on her motel bed, a picture of Jesus placed near her head. Peter Fonteece, who is legally blind, waited until her body turned cold. Then, after three unsuccessful attempts to kill himself, he reported his wife's death. Mr. Fonteece, 47, will appear this morning before Madam Justice Helen Pierce of the Ontario Superior Court for a sentence hearing. He has pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death, and Judge Pierce, a former social worker, will decide whether Mr. Fonteece has to spend time in jail.

The Crown dropped an initial charge of assisted suicide, but there are questions about why any charge was prosecuted: For medical ethicist Eike-Henner Kluge, Mr. Fonteece should not have been prosecuted. Unless there is proof that Ms. Fonteece, 39, was mentally incompetent, her husband had no duty to intervene, because her suicide wasn't illegal. "That would not have amounted to negligence and I'm surprised the husband agreed to the plea," Dr. Kluge said. Dr. Kluge, an ethicist at the University of Victoria, said Mr. Fonteece shouldn't be punished for allowing his wife her legal right to end her life. Being suicidal didn't make Ms. Fonteece mentally incompetent, he said. "If one evaluates one's life slope and sees it going downhill, it doesn't indicate depression but simply an awareness of a bleak future."

[Some notes on other topics are in the Notes section below.]

[Note: Some other recent stories related to this topic are in the Links: section below.]

Links:

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Source:

Ha, Tu Thanh. "As desperation leads woman to suicide, husband's fate hangs in balance". The Globe and Mail. Last updated on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010 4:42AM EST. <www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/as-desperation-leads-woman-to-suicide-husbands-fate-hangs-in-balance/article1478964/>. The Globe and Mail, 444 Front Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 2S9, Canada.

Tags:

Tags (or keywords) briefly indicate some major topics of the report.

  • assisted suicide

  • Canada

Notes:

  • Australia: Youth suicide - Twisting the truth for a Headline [Blog of Philip Nitschke]
    http://peacefulpill.blogspot.com/2010/02/youth-suicide-twisting-truth-for.html

    Philip Nitschke explains that the recent sensational Australian headlines about the deaths of young people from Nembutal were not based on facts. He quotes from a letter by Professor Ozanne-Smith of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine who says: It is incorrect to assume that only 11 of the 38 deaths with a completed coronial investigation involved a person who had a significant physical illness, deteriorating health problem or chronic pain. The report states that in only 11 cases could this fact be verified. With much of the coverage of the NCIS report focusing on the deaths of young people, it is important to note that subsequent analysis of the data shows at least nine of the 14 individuals aged under 40 who died from pentobarbitone toxicity worked in a veterinary or animal laboratory environment - a detail not in the original report. Thus, these people may have had knowledge of the drug and/or access to it from their work experience or workplace. We do not think the data supports the view that younger people are generally accessing Nembutal/pentobarbitone via euthanasia information, or that only 11 of the individuals who died from pentobarbitone toxicity had a physical illness or chronic pain.

    He also quotes from a letter of rebuttal which he wrote to The Age, which they refused to publish. In sum: "The journalist didn't do her homework,and was seduced by the desire for a headline that would shock!"

ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid201002240549.
Mailed: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 14:24:36 -0600
at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Etcetera:

EuthaNEWSia is a free Canadian news advisory service covering end-of-life issues such as right to die, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. EuthaNEWSia is produced by the Right to Die Society of Canada which works toward a good death for all, including open, regulated and equitable access to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The editor is Michael Dawson <editor@euthanewsia.ca>. 

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