Robert Latimer is a Canadian farmer sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of his daughter, Tracy.
Latimer says that he killed his daughter because she had ongoing health problems and he believed that the next surgery she was to have, to ease a permanently disconnected hip, would only add to her suffering. He is seeking a reduction of his sentence (having served 3 years as of 2004).
Supporters of Latimer said that this was a mercy killing which should not be punished as harshly as other murders. (10 years is the minimum sentence for murder). The jury that convicted him felt that he should spend 1 year in jail and another under house arrest at his farm near Wilkie, Saskatchewan .
However, disability rights advocates said that killing a severely disabled child like Tracy should carry the same penalty as killing a non-disabled child. To do otherwise would devalue the lives of disabled people and increase the risk of more "mercy killings" by their caregivers.
Robert Latimer is currently serving his sentence in a minimum-security facility on Vancouver Island.
