Disability advocates yesterday called for a presidential pardon for an elderly man convicted in a “compassionate killing” case, while asking for more support for people with cerebral palsy and their caregivers.
The Supreme Court on Monday last week upheld a two-and-a-half-year prison term for a Taipei man surnamed Chen (陳), 79, who was convicted of suffocating his daughter to death in 2020.
Chen’s daughter, then 50 years old, was bedridden since childhood due to severe cerebral palsy and mental disability.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Chen and his wife attended to all of their daughter’s daily needs, which then became Chen’s sole responsibility after his wife fell ill.
According to court transcripts, Chen said his daughter developed a toothache and body pain in February 2020, and believed she had built a resistance to painkillers and anesthetics.
He also could not take her to a hospital due to COVID-19 restrictions and fear of infection, he told the court.
Unable to bear seeing her suffer, he said he suffocated her with a blanket, then attempted suicide after regretting his actions.
Three courts subsequently handed him the most lenient possible sentence on compassionate grounds.
Eleven associations dedicated to cerebral palsy, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Charles Chen (陳以信) and other advocates yesterday held a news conference calling on President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to grant Chen a pardon.
Charles Chen said the issue is dear to him, as his legislative assistant, Huang Hsiao-chih (黃筱智), also has cerebral palsy.
While she knows that not everyone is as lucky as she is, she deeply understands the toll it takes on those who care for people with the condition, the lawmaker said.
Huang said she fears that Chen’s case would be the “straw that breaks the camel’s back” that makes families of people with cerebral palsy lose hope.
The government is responsible for caring for its people, and as such, should take the social responsibility for leaving Chen to care for his daughter alone for 50 years, Huang said.
Tsai should pardon Chen so he never has to see the inside of a prison, she said, calling on the Ministry of Health and Welfare to review its policies on social services and long-term care to ensure that everyone who needs care can get it, no matter who they are.
Civic groups can provide intensive care for a few people, but they cannot provide universal care, Consortium Cerebral Palsy Foundation chairman Huang Chun-hsien (黃春賢) said.
The government should work with civic groups to create a better social safety net and hopefully avoid another tragedy, he said.
This case “was not the first, nor will it be the last,” Kaohsiung City Cerebral Palsy Association founding chairwoman Wang Kang-feng (王岡鳳) said.
Good care institutions can reduce the burden of care on families and prevent such tragedies from unfolding in the first place, she said.
A petition initiated by Huang Hsiao-chih calling for a presidential pardon has garnered more than 1,000 signatures in two days.
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