Disabled rights advocates and pro-life supporters are once again dismayed over a lenient sentence given a Toronto physician who assisted in the suicide of a patient.
Dr. Maurice Genereux, an AIDS specialist, was sentenced to two-years less a day for prescribing lethal doses of pain killers to patient Aaron McGinn in 1996. He is the first doctor in North America to be charged with, and convicted of, assisted suicide.
Although pro-life supporters are happy with the guilty verdict, they are dismayed by the light sentence.
The Crown had sought a six-year prison term, while the maximum penalty is 14 years.
“The punishment doesn’t appear to fit the crime in this case,” said Alex Schadenberg, director of the pro-life office of the London, Ont. Catholic diocese.
“The patient was suffering from clinical depression and instead of being offered proper treatment, he was given death,” he added.