Compassion over Chinese Mother’s ‘Mercy Killing’

The case of an elderly woman found guilty of killing her disabled son has provoked an outpouring of compassion from Chinese social media users, BBC reports.

The 83-year-old, identified only as Ms Huang, was found guilty of the manslaughter of her disabled son, Li.

She fed her 46-year-old son about 60 sleeping pills on 9 May and strangled him with a silk scarf as she used cotton pads to cover his nose.

Huang was found guilty of manslaughter by the People’s Intermediate Court of Guangzhou and received a three-year suspended prison sentence.

She said she took her son’s life because she feared no one would care for him after she died.

Li was born prematurely with severe mental and physical disabilities that left him unable to walk or talk.

Prosecutors asked Huang why she could not have arranged for Li to have been cared for by his elder brother, but she said she was not prepared to burden him.

“It was my fault to give birth to him and make him suffer. I’d rather commit murder than leave him to someone else,” Huang told the court.

“[F]or the past two years my own health was too poor to take care of him any more,” the 83-year-old said.

“I’m getting older and weaker and might die before him,” she said. “The idea of killing him occurred to me a week before and I had been struggling.”

Head judge Wan Yunfeng said: “She deserves mercy even though she did break the law.”