Father killed son to end boy's 'hell': child had seizures father took antidepressant

[Ani_Ibi]

Father killed son to end boy’s 'hell’

LONDON, Ont. - Renowned Toronto physical fitness expert David Carmichael thought his 11-year-old son would be “better off in heaven” when he strangled him to end the “hell” of his brain seizures, a court heard on the opening day of his first-degree murder trial…

Defence lawyer Philip Campbell argued Carmichael isn’t criminally responsible for the murder of his son “on the basis of mental disorder”… Court heard that Carmichael, 47, was… on the antidepressant Paxil when he drugged and strangled Ian for 20 minutes on July 31, 2004.

Carmichael mixed some of the Sleep-Eze with orange juice at around 10:15 p.m. and gave it to his unsuspecting son. Ian drank the mixture and took valproic acid, a treatment used for childhood seizures… But rather than fall asleep, Ian began hallucinating and remained awake until about 2:30 a.m., court was told.

At about 2:40 a.m., Carmichael began strangling his son. He stopped at 3 a.m., only after he was certain Ian was dead… based on interviews with Carmichael’s wife and other relatives, Ian didn’t appear to be in the depths of misery that he described. Instead, they painted Ian as a boy who did struggle with some difficulties but was most often a happy, compassionate and non-violent child.

 

[Rosalinda]

This is a repeat of the Tracey Latimer case: parents killing their own children because they aren’t perfect enough. I doubt he will garner as much sympathy as Latimer but this is Canada so anything is possible; our political elite is so fond of adopting European ways including the euthanasia policy of the Netherlands.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Rosalinda:

This is a repeat of the Tracey Latimer case: parents killing their own children because they aren’t perfect enough. I doubt he will garner as much sympathy as Latimer but this is Canada so anything is possible; our political elite is so fond of adopting European ways including the euthanasia policy of the Netherlands.

Yeah, this is Canada alright. Yesterday I was having a perfectly nice conversation with someone about literature. We got through Faulkner and Gwendolyn McEwan and then right out of the blue I was asked if I would come to a reading group on Judy Rebick. I responded, “Certainly not!” The very idea of putting Rebick’s literature on a par with Faulkner and McEwan!

 

[Rosalinda]

Interesting testimony in today’s London Free Press:

David Carmichael also told police a recent brain scan showed damage from which Ian wouldn’t improve. He wanted to put his son “out of his misery,” court heard Monday.

But the father who spent his career promoting children’s physical health – he was a former ParticipAction director – may have greatly misinterpreted just how dire Ian’s situation was, a London pathologist testified yesterday.

David Ramsay said he found no evidence the boy was bound for life in a vegetative state, as his father feared.

“In general terms, this was a normal brain,” said Ramsay, who examined the dead boy. “I find no evidence that (major damage) has either happened nor do I find a mechanism that would cause it to happen.”

lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2005/09/28/1238503-sun.html

 

[BlindSheep]

I take antidepressants - I didn’t know it was a license to kill.

 

[Rosalinda]

There is an editorial in the London Free Press this morning which is rather disconcerting in that it sounds sympathetic with the father.

lfpress.ca/newsstand/Opinion/Editorials/2005/09/30/1242032.html

Maybe some knowledgeable person can explain if his defense makes sense to them. If Carmichael was so dysfunctional in his thinking how is it he was able to function as a director of an organization? How is it he was able to organize his thoughts enough to travel out-of-town with his son and plan his demise in the privacy of a hotel room where he could be sure his wife wouldn’t come in and interfere with his “merciful killing”?

 

[Vanny]

You don’t have to go to Canada to get people sympathetic with that sort of thing.
We attend a Protestant evangelical (conservative) church.My husband was having a heated discussion with some members of my church as to why Terri Schiavo should have the right to go home with her parents and be cared for. His friends were on the side of the husband, saying “Who would want to live like THAT!”

 

[Rosalinda]

Father found not guilty yesterday.

lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2005/10/01/1243590-sun.html

Carmichael’s trial ended with Superior Court Justice Helen Rady ruling he was delusional because of a “psychotic tidal wave” when he killed Ian, 11, on July 31, 2004.
“We will probably never fully understand the desperation that led David Carmichael to take (the life of) his little boy,” said Rady, noting he encouraged Ian’s passion for biking. “He was clearly a devoted and caring parent who looked for opportunities for his son to excel.”

 

[Rosalinda]

While I don’t pretend to understand or judge Mr. Carmichael; nevertheless, it is troubling that his line of reasoning parrots that of so many mothers who justify aborting their children because

“I thought he’d be better off in heaven,” he told police, adding: “I felt I put him out of his misery.”

This sounds ominously close to the utilitarian philosophy promulgated by Peter Singer giving parents the right to decide the fate of their children: born or unborn.

 

[abcdefg]

There’s a simplar incident in China. But the report is so biased towards culture of death that I decide not to translate it