Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
語言:
English
Photo Credit: Judicial Yuan
IN A RARE CASE, there have been calls on President Lai Ching-te to pardon an eighty-year-old woman who killed her paralyzed son. This occurred apparently due to the burden of care, the woman having cared for him for over 50 years.
The killing took place in 2023, when the woman and her son had both contracted COVID-19, and when the woman’s health appeared to be declining. At the time, the woman had undergone several heart procedures and had broken several bones after falling. As such, the killing seemed to be intended to be a mercy killing, as the woman feared nobody would be left to take care of her son if she died.
Civil society groups such as the Taiwan Association of Family Caregivers have called for new judicial guidelines over such cases of mercy killings. According to the organization, there were 62 similar cases between 2018 and 2024 in Taiwan, due to the long-term burden of care. And though there was a hearing on “long-term care tragedies” in May 2023, the Taiwan Association of Family Caregivers has called for new legal guidelines and deferred trials in order to deal with such incidents.
Unusually, the KMT has called on President Lai Ching-te to pardon the woman. The Taiwan Association of Family Caregivers has also expressed support for a pardon. These calls took place as the Taiwan High Court began hearing the appeal of the woman, who was previously sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison by the Taipei High Court.
For its part, the Lai administration has stated that it will only weigh in on the matter once the normal judicial process is over, due to its respect for the independence of the judiciary. Notably, the case takes place at a time when the KMT-controlled legislature froze the Constitutional Court by passing legislation requiring a minimum number of justices for constitutional interpretations to be issued, then blocking any new confirmation to the Constitutional Court.
Likewise, while the DPP is divided internally on the issue of capital punishment, it is far more common for the KMT to call for its use. With a ruling by the Constitutional Court that limited the scope of the application of capital punishment in 2024, the KMT framed the Lai administration as having effectively phased out capital punishment.
Consequently, the KMT has suggested that there will be an increase in violent crimes in the absence of capital punishment being used as a social deterrent. The KMT previously campaigned nationally for a referendum to be held on the issue of capital punishment for the sake of electioneering. Even if it is thought that a number of individuals currently on death row in Taiwan were framed on arraigned charges during the authoritarian period, as a cover-up into wrongdoing by the police, KMT affiliates, and KMT politicians have called for the execution of all those on death row before.
Poll after poll–conducted by civil society groups opposed to capital punishment–shows majority support in society for capital punishment. As such, the Lai administration is reluctant to take the first move in pardoning the woman. Furthermore, because the KMT has increasingly leaned into attacks on courts with the claim that the Lai administration simply controls the courts to do its bidding, this is also why the Lai administration aims to present itself as maintaining judicial independence.
It is to be seen how the case resolves, then. Certainly, it is a positive development that there is seemingly bipartisan consensus on the case, when this rarely occurs in Taiwan. But partisanship and bureaucratic inertia may, in fact, simply add to the suffering that has already taken place to date. Moreover, discussion of the case may not translate to broader reflection on the lack of a social safety net in Taiwan for such individuals.