Police: Doctor euthanizes daughter, takes own life

Father in Nir Yisrael in South takes life of daughter suffering from terminal cancer before ending own life, police say.

By BEN HARTMAN
MDA Ambulance (photo credit: WIkicommons)
MDA Ambulance
(photo credit: WIkicommons)
Tragedy befell the southern moshav of Nir Yisrael on Friday morning when a local doctor killed his daughter, who was suffering from terminal cancer, rather than continue to see her in pain, according to the police.
After euthanizing the daughter, the doctor took his own life, they said.
Authorities believe the father, 66-yearold Dr. Mordechai Stillreed, injected oxygen into his daughter Keren Stillreed’s bloodstream after giving the 33- year-old a dose of morphine. Police said that after he killed his daughter he hanged himself in his home, and also attempted to stab himself to death.
The mother was at home at the time but was asleep and awoke to discover both her husband and daughter with no signs of life on the floor of their family home, commander of the Ashkelon Coast police subdistrict, Ch.-Supt. Moti Schif, said on Friday.
The police commander did not say if the mother was aware of her husband and daughter’s intentions or if Keren had any idea that her father would take his own life after killing her.
The two were buried side-by-side at a funeral held on Friday at the moshav, home to around 700 residents just east of Ashkelon.
Mordechai Stillreed, director of the hematology department at Rehovot’s Kaplan Medical Center, had practiced medicine for more than three decades.
His daughter was reportedly diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer some three years ago.
The head of the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, Yair Farjun, referred to the family as people who “invested a great deal in the community and their surroundings.”
Farjun surmised that the tragedy took place because “the father knew exactly what his daughter’s situation was and he knew he couldn’t save her. A doctor’s job is to heal and to help people, and he realized he was in a helpless situation.”