Sydney - A 60-year-old Australian woman was sentenced Wednesday for her part in the mercy killing of the 71-year-old Alzheimer's sufferer who had been her partner for 18 years. In sentencing Shirley Justins to spend her weekends in jail for the next two years for the manslaughter of former Qantas pilot Graeme Wylie, Judge Roderick Howie said "the calculated and unlawful taking of human life is an affront to every aspect of civilized life."
Wylie had been rejected for a legally assisted suicide in Switzerland because Alzheimer's had robbed him of his cognitive powers.
Judge Howie said Justins had been "selfish and cruel" in denying Wylie's daughters a chance to say goodbye before he died from a lethal dose of the barbiturate Nembutal.
Family friend Caren Jenning, 75, travelled to Mexico to obtain the euthanasia drug for herself and Wylie. Jenning was convicted in June of being an accessory in the killing. Suffering inoperable breast cancer, she committed suicide in September, leaving a letter declaring she didn't want to die in jail.
Euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke, head of Exit International, told reporters people who wanted to take their own lives should make thorough preparations ahead of time to avoid others risking prosecution.
"Those two women loved him that much that they took that choice and they are now paying one hell of a price for it," Nitschke said. "We tell people, 'don't do a Graeme Whylie,' don't involve others, get the drugs while you can, go to Mexico."
Wylie's daughter, Tania Shakespeare, was less charitable. She welcomed the sentences passed on the two women.
"I'm heartbroken that I wasn't able to say goodbye to my father," she said, describing euthanasia group Exit International as a cult.
"It's something that people follow and become mesmerized by Dr Nitschke."
