Why I Had to Help My Sister in Suicide
摘要：
一英国男子向外界讲述了他亲眼目睹姐姐自杀身亡的经历。在姐姐的自杀过程中，由于未对其采取任何阻止行动和抢救措施，劳森最后被法庭判处无罪释放。
A man who comforted his terminally-ill sister while she
attempted to commit suicide will not face charges.
日前，一位名叫格雷厄姆·劳森的英国男子向外界讲述了他亲眼目睹姐姐自杀身亡的经历。在姐姐的自杀过程中，由于未对其采取任何阻止行动和抢救措施，劳森最后被法庭判处无罪释放。
据英国《每日电讯报》1月20日报道，现年35岁的劳森是一名园艺工人。他48岁的姐姐曾患有一种名为多发性硬化症的中枢神经系统疾病。14年来，姐姐一直备受病痛的煎熬。劳森说：“当时我照顾她已有1个多月了，那时她病得十分严重。她坐在轮椅上说：‘好了，我现在很满足，我想离开了。’”
劳森回忆说：“她（姐姐）坐在轮椅上告诉我她想死，并问我是否可以帮她。我答应了她。把她背到了床上，并为她撑开了塑料袋，她当时想用一个塑料袋窒息而死。为了确保自杀成功，她还服用了大量的药物。当她呼吸困难时，她痛苦地嚎叫着。
我一直守在她身边，直到她离开。”劳森说，他姐姐在下午3点开始自杀，直到第2天下午的5点半才离开，在这26个小时里，她曾自杀了8次才成功。在姐姐死亡后不到1个小时，劳森被警方逮捕并被关押了24小时。
劳森的案子发生在2003年底，这一案情在英国尚属首例。当时，英国警方和检察院都在考虑是否应对劳森判处有罪，因为他未及时拨打999报警电话或采取行动阻止姐姐自杀。但在2004年4月，即案件5个月后，负责劳森一案的检察官肯·麦克唐纳告诉劳森的律师，劳森将被判无罪。
日前，英国一名男子在帮助自己受癌症折磨的妻子安乐死后，同样逃脱了牢狱之灾。此时，劳森才决定向外界讲述自己的经历。
劳森说，他没有想到，因为把姐姐背到床上、没叫救护车，就使自己面临帮助他人自杀的指控。劳森说：“我认为，我当时不应该去阻止她，因为她的决心和勇气让我感动。”
自愿安乐死协会主席黛博拉·安内兹表示：“在有些国家，在病人的要求下，帮助病人安乐死是合法的。”但是反安乐死组织的埃尔斯佩思女士表示，劳森受到监禁。她说：“目前有一种错误观点认为，如果有人面临着困难，就应该让他尽快解脱，而不是帮他渡过难关。我认为劳森应该受到起诉，但是医学也应该更加进步，以便让更多的病人能得到救治，而不是让他们绝望地放弃生命。”
（蒋黎黎）
A man who comforted his
terminally-ill sister while she attempted to commit suicide will not face
charges.
Graham Lawson faced the
possibility of 14 years in jail because he watched his 48-year-old sister Sue, a
former bank manager, die.
She repeatedly tried to
suffocate herself with a plastic bag, "howling" with despair as she
reached the point of being unable to resist taking a breath, he said.
She made seven
unsuccessful attempts as Mr Lawson comforted her. She finally succeeded at the
eighth attempt.
Within an hour, Mr
Lawson, 35, an agricultural worker who lives in Kent, was arrested, stripped and
locked in a police cell for 24 hours.
In the first case of
its kind in Britain, the police and prosecutors' decision on whether to take
action hinged on Mr Lawson's failure to dial 999 as his sister took her life at
her home in Kent.
Ken Macdonald, the
Director of Public Prosecutions, eventually told Mr Lawson's solicitors in April
last year, five months after the suicide, that no action would be taken.
Yesterday, Mr Lawson
decided to disclose his case after it emerged last week that another man, Brian
Blackburn, escaped a prison sentence for helping his cancer-stricken wife commit
suicide in a final "act of love".
He said: "Sue told
me she wanted to die and she asked if I would be there for her. I made a promise
that I would, and I stuck by it. When she took her life I was with her."
His sister suffered
from multiple sclerosis for 14 years and was unable to care for herself. Mr
Lawson said he did not realise he could face charges of aiding and abetting
suicide by carrying his sister upstairs to lie on her bed and not calling an
ambulance.
"I had been
staying with her for about a month, when she was really, really ill," he
said. "She was sitting in her wheelchair and said `Right, I've had enough.
I want to do it'. I carried her upstairs to her bed.
"She took an
overdose and she suffocated herself with a bag - she wanted to make sure that
she died. It took 26 hours for her to die, and eight attempts.
"But I don't think
I should have stopped her, because of her determination and her bravery. This
seems wrong to say, but it was quite an amazing thing to see."
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