If Only The Dead Could Speak ...

You know my feelings on the Tracey Latimer case. So why am I writing again?

Because in the last few days I have seen, for the first time, what is to me new information on the case. This despite having avidly followed just about every news story on Tracey and her father.

The first, which I read a few days ago, is from Michael Bach, Executive Vice-President Canadian Association for Community Living at York University.

We think the real lesson from the Tracy Latimer case is not, as many suggest, that we need to renew the debate about mercy killing. Because this was not euthanasia or mercy killing - Tracy was not dying. Her pain could have been relieved with more effective pain management medication if her parents had allowed a feeding tube to be inserted. They refused, which is why the pain management was so ineffective and the stories circulate that she could only take Tylenol...

The second is found in today's edition of the Chronicle Herald:

Tracy was scheduled for surgery which, it was hoped, would alleviate some of the pain and discomfort afflicting her, and other procedures were being considered to help with Tracy’s condition. Tracy, who had spent several months in a respite home, returned to her father’s house shortly before her death because of the imminent surgery.

No, I had never before read or heard either that Tracey's pain could have been relieved with more effective pain management medication if her parents had allowed a feeding tube to be inserted. Or that the upcoming surgery was intended to relieve some of Tracey's pain.

Rather, this was what I understood:

One of the surgeries was to remove a quarter of Tracy’s femur because one of her hips had been dislocated for more than a year.Because of the anti-seizure medication she was on, the Latimer family was told the only pain relief she could have would be regular strength Tylenol.He said he and his wife were opposed to another surgery. "We saw it as mutilating a child who was already suffering."At the time of her death, Tracy weighed less than 40 pounds.

To me, those two little points are rather important. Crucial, even, in helping me formulate my opinion on the actions of Robert Latimer. So which is it? What is the real truth? Will we ever know? And why has it taken 15 years for me to discover these two little tidbits on Tracey's condition?