Society

Trial spotlights 'brain deaths'

By Chen Hong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-08 08:23

SHENZHEN: A 37-year-old law graduate in this southern city is waiting for the court to decide his fate after going on trial for killing his brain-dead wife last February.

The case has caused a debate about euthanasia in China, a hot global issue in which people have strong opinions about "mercy killings" when a person is suffering from a terminal illness or brain dead.

The court hearing was held on Wednesday in Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, ending without a verdict. It was the first hearing since Wen Yuzhang was arrested on Feb 18, 2009.

Wen, who was charged with the intentional homicide, admitted his guilt in court, but insisted that his actions were for the sake of his wife.

His wife, Hu Jing, suddenly fell unconscious at home on the night of Feb 9 and remained in a coma at the intensive caring unit of a local hospital, according to the procurator.

Wen came to visit Hu routinely at the hospital, and during a visit at about 3 pm on Feb 16, he cried loudly and removed all the medical equipment to support the functioning of his wife's heart and lungs. He also stopped any rescue attempts by the doctors afterwards until his wife was announced dead one hour later.

"I never tried to kill her intentionally," Wen said in court, who sobbed while talking.

"The doctors kept telling me that she was very sick. There was only a slim hope that she would ever come back to life, and even if she did, she might be worse than a vegetative patient, which gave an unbearable blow to me," he added.

The doctor told him that day that his wife would soon have to have a tracheotomy for better breathing, which reminded him of his father who died painfully after the same operation a couple of years ago.

"I don't want her to suffer the same terrible pain as my father did. I would rather see her leaving the world with dignity, which prompted me to pull out her breathing tube," Wen said.

Both Wen and Hu graduated from a law school in Central China's Hubei province and lived a wealthy life with a daughter and son.

The defendant's lawyer said Hu would have died even if Wen had not pulled out her breathing tube because she was already brain dead according to experts.

Luo Bin, a forensic doctor from the medical school of Sun Yat-sen University, said Hu had suffered malformations in the blood vessels of the brain, which was the true cause of death.

However, the procurator accused Wen of depriving his wife of life because Chinese law does not accept brain death.

Although Hu's life completely relied on the breathing machine during the week-long treatment, signs showed her situation was getting better and the blood pressure returned to normal levels, said the procurator.

China is working on the criteria for brain death, which could pave the way for legislation.

Hu's mother told reporters that Wen murdered her daughter because of a secret lover.