Danish man handed suspended sentence for “mercy killing”

“No regrets” about ending his wife’s suffering, said 78-year-old man

Sep 13, 2016

A court in Helsingør gave a 78-year-old man a suspended sentence on Monday for killing his ailing wife with sleeping pills

The court found the man guilty of ‘killing on request’, noting that euthanasia is not legal in Denmark and is punishable by up to three years in prison.

The court said it had taken the woman’s condition into consideration in giving the man a suspended sentence. The husband described helping his wife end her life as a “mercy killing”.

An act of love
The man had confessed to finally yielding last April to frequent requests from the woman “he had loved for 50 years” to help her end her life by giving her 100 sleeping pills one evening. He told the court he did not regret his actions.

Court documents showed that the wife had fallen a few months previously and damaged her cervical vertebrae causing paralysis in her arms. Doctors had said there was no hope of successfully treating the woman’s condition.

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