Australian gets partial detention for euthanasia

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A court sentenced a Sydney woman Wednesday to 22 months periodic detention for what she said was the mercy killing of her longtime partner, an Alzheimer's sufferer who had been rejected for a legal euthanasia in Switzerland. Shirley Justins, 60, was found guilty in June of the manslaughter of Graeme Wylie, who died of a barbiturate overdose at age 71 at their home in 2006. She had faced a maximum 25-year prison sentence. Her sentence of periodic detention means she will spend just a few days each week in custody. Wylie, who had Alzheimer's disease, was rejected for a legally assisted suicide in Switzerland four months before his death because it was unclear whether he had the cognitive ability to decide to die. Justins, who had lived with Wylie for 18 years, argued in her trial in Australia that Wylie had been desperate to die before his dementia worsened.