To be or not to be: Husband shoots wife.
This incident has brought to light a dilemma that spouses of
sick people may often face in their lives. It is the dilemma of "to be or not to
be" when it comes to helping your spouse die. The controversy surrounding doctor
assisted suicide has led to sick people with little hope of recovering finding
other means of putting an end to their misery. This often leads to the dependence
on spouses and close relatives to help put them to eternal sleep.
Such is the case of Ernest Chris chumbley, a south Kentucky man
who is being held at the laurel county detention center for shooting his wife
who until then was suffering from severe breast cancer and had few weeks or
months to live. He fired two shots into her brain. Ernest and his wife Virginia
had been married for 20 years until Virginia developed cancer, one of the many
ways to die and started the journey of a slow excruciating death. Ernest
watched his once lively wife, deteriorate everyday and lose the sparkle in her eyes.
According to him, his wife had told him to end her pain which saw her gasping for air,every night . The neighbors attested to the
fact that they were once happily married
but Virginia’s pain was keeping everybody up at night. He had initially refused
and had told her that the only thing he had was what the doctors gave her, but
she had insisted that he kill her
He allegedly obliged and shot her twice and then called 911.
He was arrested when officials got into the house and found virginia’s dead
body. He was booked for murder.
Most people think that The only thing worse than suffering is watching
someone you love suffer and that if what
he's saying is true, than this mercy killing may have been the only choice he
believed he had. Others don’t think so, they claim if he truly loved his wife
and she was suffering from cancer and couldn't bare the pain anymore and asked him
to kill her... No one would do it.
According to a man he said, “ I will feel bad and wish I could be the one in
pain instead of her but I don't think I can kill the woman I chose to spend the
rest of my life with. I would lay beside her while she took her last breath but
it wouldn't be me taking that breath away, it would be God.”
Some people are postulating that shooting her twice may be a
sign of intent , which would make it more about him not being able to hold on any
more than the wife requesting to be killed. The only thing here is that, there
is no evidence to prove that she really wanted to be killed. There should have
at least been a video or something to prove and using a gun was not the best
way to kill someone you love.
A woman said “There is nothing selfish about not
wanting to take the love of your life’s last breath away. If my husband was
suffering it would crush me completely but i couldn't bring myself to harm him
and my husband would never put me in the position to make that decision he
would gladly suffer until his time was up than scar me forever and make me
throw my life away. The request for him to do this is what’s selfish if this is
really why he killed her". It is a serious case of "to be or not to be"
