Hong Kong judge calls for fresh look at policies on terminally ill as man who killed cancer-stricken wife gets probation
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A High Court judge has appealed to the Hong Kong government to review its policies on the terminally ill as he showed compassion for a man who killed his cancer-stricken wife while he was suffering from a major depressive disorder.
Mr Justice Albert Wong Sung-hau on Wednesday sentenced Kwok Wai-yin, who admitted manslaughter, to a year’s probation after the prosecution accepted the defendant’s capacity for rational thought was affected by the stress of caring for wife Chan Sau-wan, who had often said she wanted to die because of the pain.
Wong said the case highlighted the question of whether legal measures should be introduced to take into account the wishes of the terminally ill in “extremely desperate situations”.
He told the court it was a tragic case that deserved compassion and accepted that Kwok had killed his wife in “a state of diminished responsibility which cannot be said to be a result of his own fault”.
Wong added that Kwok, 58, who had spent 31 months behind bars on remand, did not pose a long-term threat to society and that a period of supervision and counselling would be in the public interest and in the best interests of the defendant.