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.”