When is assisted suicide a crime? What is even "assisted"?

I just got this story on the top of the AP wire and hadn't heard about it before. It boils my blood to see it now, I have to say. Lets take a look at what is of so much passion for the Bunny and see if you all don't agree with me.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — No one may ever know Barbara Mancini's intentions when she allegedly handed her dying 93-year-old father a bottle of morphine at his central Pennsylvania home.

Did she want to relieve his pain? Help him end his life? Both?

(puts on court room voice) Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury of Public Opinion, the above is, in the end, the only question here. It's the only issue here and handing someone painkiller they are entitled to is not, last I checked, a crime....unless context is shoe horned in to make it one.

The story indicates that 4 days after the above exchange, the man died in the Hospital. So, what are we to surmise from this? Is she a killer? A dark angel, as some have termed the type? Did she deviously fool an old man into comitting suicide? These questions would be reasonable to ask and wonder about ....because you'd assume there wouldn't be a case if we could hear from HIM and know HIS thoughts, even after the overdose.....right?

Well.. it so happens, we DO know his thoughts.

. . . . Yourshaw was given a drug antidote, awoke agitated over his hospitalization, and became upset when told his daughter might be in trouble, according to Mancini's supporters.

"Don't hurt Barbara," he cried, according to Compassion & Choices, a Denver-based group that supports "death with dignity" laws and has advocated for Mancini since her arrest in June.

As far as I'm concerned, that should have ended it. On the spot. There is another aspect to this. The man had a clear, documented and known DO NOT RESUSCITATE order on him...and the nurse checking on him at home called medics to have him revived at the hospital anyway. The story indicates he was agitated to say the least.....as he had EVERY right to be.

Now to be entirely fair here, she did make a statement to cops that she gave him the bottle of pills because he had expressed his wishes to end his life. He was in the terminal last stages of Diabetic complications and heart issues. He was going to die and die soon. He didn't care for the extreme pain version and chose something else. She didn't do a Dr. Death by activating mechanical mechanisms to kill him. She didn't inject him or shoot him in the head ...as HAS happened in some cases. She just gave him the bottle and left him to his own devices to do what he CHOSE to do by free will.

Mancini, a 57-year-old wife, mother and daughter is now heading for trial, while supporters attack state Attorney General Kathleen Kane for pursuing the case. Yourshaw suffered from end-stage diabetes and heart problems before he died in February.

"This chilling precedent could impact tens of millions of baby boomers caring for their aging and dying parents," Compassion & Choices said in a news release.

Source

I think this is absolutely outrageous. When my own Father died...it was attended, as they say, in a Hospital oncology ward. He'd gone comatose after a VERY bad and violent reaction to the Chemo treatment, almost immediately. When I got myself together enough, a couple days later, to give them the answer to the ultimate question they waited a bit to ask....it was what had to be. Brain function made the decision. I mention this only because, before taking him off the ventilator, they shot him with two FULL syringes of Morphine. They said it was to prevent any discomfort. I don't need to be an expert on drugs to know what they shot him with was a fatal overdose. It was in context, it was the right thing to do and it had to be done. However?

had it been in Pennsylvania? It sounds like the nurses and doctor in charge ought to be good for murder by this crazy logic? Heck, they didn't just hand my dad the bottle, they injected enough to kill a horse. Mercy vs. Murder...it's not a fine line at all. It's a BIG line with very clear sides...and assisted suicide? It's not, unless actively ASSISTED, in my view.

reply to post by wrabbit2000
If someone that I love is suffering and wants me to help them end their pain I won't hesitate to do whatever I need to do to help them and honor their decision- whatever the law says be damned! There is no comparison between murder someone and being merciful. Somebody is just trying to make a name for themself at this family's expense...and it's WRONG!