In July 1986, just after an old man's funeral in a rural area of Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province, a police car roared in and handcuffed the son of the deceased who had just cried to death.
A policeman showed him an arrest warrant: "Wang Mingcheng, you are suspected of murdering your mother Xia Suwen, and you are now arrested according to law." ”
After saying that, he was escorted to the police car.
On March 15, 1990, the local procuratorate indicted Wang Mingcheng for intentional homicide, and after the first instance trial, the second instance trial in 1992 finally declared Wang Mingcheng innocent.
When interviewed in front of the court, Wang Mingcheng not only did not show joy on his face, but instead said in a loud voice in front of the reporter's camera:
"I am guilty, and my sin is unforgivable!"
On the afternoon of July 1, 1984, Wang Mingcheng, who was working in a printing and dyeing factory in Xi'an, suddenly received a telegram, and his heart clattered and he tensed up.
In those days, there were very few phones, no mobile phones, and contact with home was to write letters, and only when something big happened, they would send telegrams.
The telegram was sent by her sister Wang Mingjun, and sure enough, it was not good news, and there were only four words on the telegram:
Maternal disease, quick return.
Wang Mingcheng's father died of illness when he was seven years old, and it was his mother who painstakingly pulled the four sisters up, suffered a lot of sins, and suffered a lot.
When my mother was less than fifty years old, she hunched over and hunched over, her sideburns white.
Because of this, Wang Mingcheng was very filial to his mother, and after reading the letter, he returned to his heart like an arrow, immediately asked the workshop director for leave, and boarded the train back to his hometown in Hanzhong.
On the road, Wang Mingcheng's mood has been uneasy, he hopes that his mother's illness is only a disease of overwork, not an incurable disease, after careful treatment and recuperation, perhaps only 57 years old she can recover her health and enjoy the happiness of her children and grandchildren around the knees.
When he rushed to the Hanzhong Infectious Disease Hospital where his mother was seeking medical treatment, after seeing the diagnosis certificate, he was stunned and stunned, and a few words were written on it: "Advanced cirrhosis of the liver ascites."
Cirrhosis of the liver ascites is a serious manifestation of liver disease, and advanced cirrhosis, abdominal bulging, walking and breathing are very difficult, and a considerable part of the cirrhosis of the liver ascites, will eventually turn to liver cancer.
The face of his mother in front of him had lost a lot of weight, and he almost didn't recognize it for a moment.
Although the mother saw her son come in and tried her best to hide her pain, Wang Mingcheng's family knew the severity of her mother's illness, and his heart was like a knife, tears swirling in his eyes, trying not to let it fall.
He made up his mind to take good care of his mother and let her old man recover as soon as possible. Subsequently, he wrote to the factory leader for a long vacation and devoted himself to accompanying his mother in the hospital.
In order to have more hope, Wang Mingcheng also sought medical treatment everywhere, hoping that his mother would recover as soon as possible.
During that time, as long as he heard which doctor in which place could cure this disease, whether it was Chinese and Western medicine, he would go to visit, and as soon as he heard about any effective unilateral formula, he would also hurry to prepare it and let his mother take it.
After some hard work, the mother's illness not only did not alleviate, but became worse day by day, and it was very difficult to get out of bed and walk, so she had to stay in bed for a long time.
After May 1986, due to long-term bed rest, Wang Mingcheng's mother had pressure sores on her buttocks, edema in her legs, and swollen abdomen, often incontinent and unconscious.
Seeing his former spirited mother, tortured to death by the disease, Wang Mingcheng was like a thousand arrows piercing his heart, often carrying his mother to secretly shed tears.
On June 6, the mother fell into a coma again, and could not wake up no matter what, and Wang Mingcheng and his sister's hearts were half cold.
3 days later, my mother suddenly woke up, took a pair of silver bracelets from her wrists, handed them to Wang Mingcheng, and said: "This is your grandmother's inheritance, you have to cherish it, see it, it is like seeing your mother." ”
Then she shook Wang Mingcheng's hand hard and said, "Son, you let me go, I'm really better off alive than dead now." After saying that, he fainted again.
For half a month, the mother's condition recurred, sometimes waking up and sometimes comatose, but most of the time she was in a coma.
Whenever she woke up, she always repeated a sentence in her mouth: "Let me die, I can't stand it." ”
On the morning of June 22, the attending doctor, Director Pu Liansheng, came to check the room, and Wang Mingcheng and his sister came forward to inquire about their mother's condition.
Dr. Pu called them to the duty room and said solemnly, "Your mother's illness has reached the last moment, the hope of a cure is very slim, and miracles are difficult to appear." ”
Coming out of the duty room, Wang Mingcheng consulted with his sister and sister and said: "Since our mother's illness has not been saved, do we take some measures to make her old man suffer less." ”
After listening to it, the sister was inexplicable, did not react for a while, and the sister who felt empathy quickly understood the meaning of the brother.
At that time, it had been several years of reform and opening up, some new things had also been introduced to China, and foreign reports of "euthanasia" were often published in the newspapers, and the Chinese people also had a certain understanding of this model.
The younger sister saw that her mother was so guilty and silently agreed with her brother's proposal. But when they told the doctor what they meant, they were rejected by the doctor.
Pu Liansheng shook his head and said: "No, foreign doctors do this because there is a law to follow, their country has this kind of legal support, even if there is no legislation in the country, their society is very tolerant of euthanasia." ”
"But our country has not passed the 'euthanasia' legislation at present, once the doctor does this, he will take responsibility and will be discredited, and our hospital will certainly not support it."
At 8:35 a.m. on June 28, Wang Mingcheng's brothers and sisters came to Pu Liansheng's office again, and when they saw no one around, the brothers and sisters pounced on Pu Liansheng and knelt down: "Please, Dr. Pu." ”
Wang Mingcheng also took out an A4 piece of paper from his arms and said, "Dr. Pu, this is a disclaimer. ”
Pu Liansheng took a look at it, and it was written in black and white: "We are willing to let the doctor take measures to euthanize his mother Xia Suwen, and has nothing to do with the doctor." Xia Suwen's son Wang Mingcheng and daughters Wang Mingjun and Wang Mingdai, June 28, 1986".
After seeing the exoneration letter, Pu Liansheng pondered for a long time, nodded, and decided to help complete them, so that the old man who had been issued a "critical illness notice" would end his suffering as soon as possible.
Although he was accustomed to seeing scenes of patients being tortured in his career, he was still touched by the despair of patient Xia Suwen when he was in pain, and by the filial piety of Wang Mingcheng's brothers and sisters.
Therefore, at 11:15 p.m. on the same day, Pu Liansheng prescribed a prescription with only one drug, "Compound Hibernation Spirit", and the dose was 100 mg.
"Compound hibernation" is a drug commonly used in pediatric clinical sedation, the maximum amount of a single injection can not exceed 50 mg, and the lethal amount for normal adults is 600 to 800 mg. However, Xia Suwen had been ill for a long time, with organ failure, decreased resistance, and although the dose was small, it was enough to kill her.
Pu Liansheng, of course, knew the consequences of this, and he specially wrote the words "family members ask for euthanasia" on the prescription in red pen, and Wang Mingcheng, as the representative of the family, was also asked to sign his name on the prescription.
After the injecting nurse saw the prescription, she was worried that she was implicated and did not dare to implement the prescription.
Pu Liansheng also assigned The health school intern students Cai Mou, Qi Mou and others to inject Xia, but they did not expect that Cai, Qi and others did not dare to implement it, and later they could not resist Pu Liansheng's instructions and injected Xia Suwen with a compound hibernation spirit.
When he left work, Pu Liansheng said to the doctor on duty, Li Mou: "If Xia Suwen can't do it at 12 o'clock (not dead yet), you will give another injection (compound hibernation spirit)".
At 13:15 p.m., unable to withstand the two urgings of Wang Mingcheng and his sister, Dr. Li, who was on duty, prescribed another 100 mg compound hibernation spirit, which was injected by Zhao Mou, the nurse on duty.
At 5:00 a.m. on June 29, Xia Suwen passed away in a relatively decent coma.
Thanks to the doctor's help, Xia Suwen suffered less in the process of passing away, and although Wang Mingcheng was extremely sad because of his mother's departure, he also felt relieved, because his mother was finally relieved.
After Xia Suwen's death, Wang Mingcheng's eldest sister and second sister soon learned the truth, found the hospital, wanted the hospital to compensate for a little medical expenses and funeral expenses, but the hospital refused, so the two reported to the police Director Pu Liansheng, and the police immediately decided to arrest him.
At this point, Wang Mingcheng naturally couldn't get rid of it.
In March 1990, the local procuratorate indicted Wang Mingcheng and Pu Liansheng for intentional homicide, and the local court immediately openly tried the case.
On April 6, 1991, the court rendered a first-instance judgment, declaring the defendants Pu Liansheng and Wang Mingcheng innocent. After the verdict, the procuratorate filed a protest, and Pu Liansheng and Wang Mingcheng believed that they were innocent, not the "minor crimes" stated in the verdict, so they also decided to appeal.
On March 25, 1992, after a second-instance trial, the local intermediate people's court ruled in accordance with law that the original judgment should be upheld.
The court acquitted on the basis of:
The main cause of death of the client's mother, Xia Suwen, was hepatic encephalopathy. The total amount of compound hibernation spirit she received twice was only 175 mg, the dosage was still in the normal range, and the patient died 14 hours after the second dose, so the injection only deepened the patient's coma and was not the direct cause of death.
Wang Mingcheng was in the case of his mother Xia Suwen's illness and dying, in order to alleviate her pain in the process of death, he asked the doctor Pu Liansheng to carry it out, and the circumstances of both people were significantly minor, the harm was not large, and did not constitute a crime.
Therefore, Pu Liansheng and Wang Mingcheng were found not guilty.
Even in some Western countries where euthanasia is legalized, the actions of the two men in fact constitute intentional homicide, because euthanasia presupposes that the consent of the person in writing must be obtained.
Although the Queen Mother said that she "did not want to live", she did not leave written evidence, so it could only be considered murder.
So later Wang Mingcheng also realized his mistake, and when the verdict was acquitted, he said in front of the reporter:
"I'm guilty."
After Wang Mingcheng was released, the dust of the "euthanasia incident of helping his mother" settled, and his life once returned to normal and gradually faded from the public eye.
What no one expected was that after 11 years, he once again stepped onto the front desk of "euthanasia" and became the focus of public opinion.
In November 2000, Wang Mingcheng was diagnosed with stomach cancer and immediately underwent surgery, and two years later, his condition deteriorated again, and the cancer spread to other parts of his body.
On January 7, 2003, he was hospitalized again, and he was overwhelmed by illness and constantly begged doctors to "euthanize" him.
After being tortured in a hospital bed for about half a year, Wang Mingcheng repeatedly asked the hospital to euthanize himself without success, and no hospital dared to provoke right and wrong again, and could only refuse. Even though Wang Mingcheng wanted to "euthanize" through the media, the hospital still refused again because the state had no legislation.
At 3:30 a.m. on August 3, 2003, Wang Mingcheng stopped breathing during the torment of illness.
Wang Mingcheng left, but the discussion about euthanasia did not stop.
Netizens are divided into two camps with distinct attitudes, some are completely in favor of it, and some are resolutely opposed.
What exactly is "euthanasia"?
The word "euthanasia" comes from the Greek word meaning to die "happily". It consists of two levels of reality, one is a happy painless death, and the other is a painless death. Usually the context we speak of is the second.
Under what circumstances can euthanasia be implemented?
It is generally believed that the patient has suffered from an incurable disease and is dying, and because of the extreme pain of the body, it brings extreme mental pain, and at the request of the patient and his immediate family, with the approval of the doctor, the patient is made to end the process of life in a painless state by humane means.
The Western church has long been opposed to euthanasia, believing that human life is given by God, that death is determined by God, and that they have no right to deprive them.
But with the passage of time, the concept of euthanasia has been accepted by more and more countries.
In the 1930s, countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States began to establish organizations dedicated to the legalization of voluntary euthanasia.
Around the 1970s, European countries such as France, Denmark, Italy, and Spain also appeared in voluntary euthanasia associations.
The goal pursued by these civil society organizations is to legitimize "euthanasia".
In 2002, the Dutch "euthanasia legalization" bill came into force, becoming the first country to eat crabs, although euthanasia has not yet been legalized in many countries, but people have expressed more and more understanding, sympathy and support for the practice of giving critically ill and incurable patients the right and freedom to die to get rid of the cruel suffering of illness, and feel that it is in line with the humanitarian spirit.
Support for euthanasia is also on the rise, with thousands of people making wills while they are still healthy, expressing their willingness to choose euthanasia if necessary.
When we see Wang Mingcheng's bone-crushed body tormented by cancer and his unbearable face, and recall his mother's experience in those years, can we have a little more understanding and respect for euthanasia?
How happy is life, how bitter is death, and leaving without pain and dignity is not a relief for a normal person who has the right to control his own destiny?