From: John Tserkezis 
Reply-To: Fidonet AVtech Echo 

Bob Lawrence wrote:

>  That's not right! The coroner is only involved if the doctor refuses
> to sign the death certificate. Wasn't she being treated by a GP?

  She was in hospital for about two weeks before she died.  (originally went in 
for lungs full of fluid)

>  The other way you end up with no death certificate, is if you are
> taken to Hospital Casualty, already dead or die on the way. It needs a
> doctor to sign off, and without a signed death certificate an autopsy
> is automatic, dementia or not.

 >  Did your aunt die at home, alone?

  She died about nine days after the do not resuscitate order.

>  That's not true either. The parent/guardian has no repsonsibility at
> all. If little Willy, or braindead Uncle Joe shoots the postman, they
> don't arrest the parent or the carer. Someone with dementia who
> commits a crime will be locked up in a psyche ward. The responsibility
> of a carer is totally vague, under law.

  Ah, that's why all those bratty parents get away with letting their bratty 
kids make all hell break loose.

>  A "guardian" is a legal term specific to kids. If you foster a kid,
> the kid is only on loan. If you become the kid's legal guardian, he's
> as good as yours, short of actual adoption.

  Dunno, my cousin used the term.

>  If *I* came home to my braindead but usually harmless uncle and
> caught him masturbating for my young kids, I'd do exactly what the
> mother did and beat the living shit out of him. Actually, I'm not as
> nice a person as the mother... I'd have dumped to old bastard long
> since, and I'd like to think that when the cops arrived, I'd have my
> lawyer waiting for them and say absolutely *NOTHING*; let them try to
> make their case without evidence, and then tell a carefully-rehearsed
> cock-and-bull story for the first time in court. 

  How do you explain the wheely bin then?

>  But that's not what *nice* people do. They try to explain
> themselves, the cops write it all down and get it on video, and the
> prosecutor picks the eyes out of it to put you away and get a wage
> rise for being clever... while all you can afford is a dickhead
> batrrister who tells you to plead guilty and trust the judge. So you
> get ten years..

  Yeah, but you're only appeasing the media frenzy, where someone has to get 
blamed.

>  I'd like someone to look at the *real* purpose of the Law.

>  The law is upposed to protect the law-abiding. It has no other
> puropiose. In that case, how is that mother any threat to society? Is
> she going to kill another uncle with dementia? And yet, a bastard who
> shoots a highway-patrol cop in cold blood only gets the minimum 25,
> although he is a *serious* danger to society. He carries a gun and
> shoots cops! For Christ's sake!  The mother gets 10 for doing what any
> normal person would do, and the mad-dog killer gets 25.

  No, sadly, the law has nothing to do with justice.  It's just about 
minimising your losses.  That is, do you stand to loose less by going to court 
or not?

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