One type of a death panel

A sad end to 70 years of marriage

Through seven decades of marriage, Roy Charles Laird was by his wife's side.

After Clara got sick and started showing signs of dementia, he refused to hire nursing aides to help care for her. He insisted on doing everything himself — from washing her laundry to cooking her meals.

He was there nearly every day, a pained witness to her steady decline over the last five years.

He was also there at the end, according to Seal Beach police, who say that on Sunday around noon, 88-year-old Roy killed 86-year-old Clara with a single gunshot to the head at her nursing home.

He was arrested on suspicion of murder for what some who know them see as an act of love.

"It was a mercy killing," said their daughter, Kathy Palmateer, 68.

About three months ago, he reluctantly agreed to put his wife in the Country Villa Health Care Center a nursing facility less than a mile from their home. By then, she was unable to feed herself, walk, sit up in a wheelchair or even recognize many of the people close to her, Palmateer said

Mr. Laird has now been charged with murder

My two cents: let Mr. Laird go. What he did was wrong and against the law, but there is no reason prosecutors should spend their time and resources prosecuting an 88-year-old man that will die soon enough. Not to mention, it costs the state of California about $50,000 per year to house an inmate and would probably cost more for Mr. Laird since she is 88 years old. That is clearly a waste of the state of California's resources (and my tax dollars since I am a resident of California).

If everything in the article is true, clearly Mr. Laird loved his wife and it was indeed a "mercy killing." That doesn't make his actions right, but it does make them less wrong. Prosecutors have the option of choosing to prosecute or not and this is a case where they should decline to prosecute Mr. Laird.

This brings up a larger issue that many people face everyday: how should a person be able to die? Should an 86-year-old woman suffering from dementia that is unable to walk, speak, feed herself and recognize anyone that she has known for many years be able to end her life? Should a young person who has been depressed for several years be able to end his life? Should a ventilator dependent quadriplegic who suffers from terrible phantom pains be able to end his life?

I don't have all the answers, but I think the questions need to be asked. I do firmly believe that individuals should be able to choose for themselves. I do not think that the government should be allowed to tell a person that he or she can or cannot end his or her own life. Isn't that a freedom we should all be entitled to? I'll put it this way, if I'm ever in the same condition that Mrs Laird was in (essentially brain-dead), I would want someone to do the same thing to me.