是仁爱母亲还是冷血杀手?

然而，却有一些麻烦的因素证明这起悲剧并非协助性自杀--汤姆所患并非不治之症。
But there are troubling elements to this tragedy that puts it in a different category from assisted suicide. Tom did not have a terminal illness.
　　
是他那因悲痛而绝望、时常歇斯底里的母亲自己解读他的状态，相信自己所做的一切都是为了他好。
It was his mother, desperate and at times hysterical with grief, who interpreted his state and believed she was acting in his best interests.
　　
当Inglis夫人（当时正在学护理学）被告知脑损伤的儿子没有病痛时，她反问：“他们怎么知道？”据称，她不相信英国罗姆福Queen's Hospital一名医生对汤姆病状的乐观预断，称自己所看到的只有儿子的“恐惧、痛苦与不幸”。
When Mrs Inglis, who was doing a nursing diploma, was assured that her brain-damaged son was not in pain, she asked: "How do they know?" She is alleged to have refused to believe an encouraging prognosis from one of the doctors at Queen's Hospital, Romford, and to have seen only "horror, pain and tragedy" in his condition.

同理，我们也会问，她又怎么知道？他真的毫无康复的希望么？她又如何凭借母亲的直觉坚信昏迷的儿子“身处地狱”呢？2007年，汤姆从救护车上摔下后仅10天，她便对他的痛苦坚信不疑，并到邻居家中寻求帮助要用海洛因结束他的生命。
Equally, we might ask, how did she know? Was there absolutely no hope for his recovery? By what extension of a mother's intuition could she measure her comatose son's "living hell"? Yet so certain was she of his agony that only 10 days after Tom was injured by falling from an ambulance, in 2007, she turned to a neighbour to ask for help in finding heroin to kill him.
　　
很明显，Inglis夫人的家人都很支持她。不仅如此，他们还鼓励她勇敢起来。“所有爱他、和他亲近的人，”汤姆的哥哥艾利克斯说：“都不认为这是凶杀。”然而，陪审团却不得不这样做。
Significantly, all her close family have supported Mrs Inglis. More than that, they have called her courageous. "All of those who loved and were close to Tom," said his brother, Alex, "have never seen this as murder." The jury, however, was forced to do so.
　　
她被宣判谋杀罪成立,这项罪名理应被判处强制性终身监禁。而在这起案件中，她仅仅被判处入狱9年。按照以往的量刑标准，谋杀罪最少被判15年。Brian Barker法官的最少9年已经是某种程度的法外开恩，但却并不表示宽容。
She was convicted of murder, for which the mandatory sentence is life. In her case, nine years in prison. Against the usual tariff, which starts at 15 years for murder, Judge Brian Barker's minimum of nine years may reflect a degree of temperance but it does not reflect mercy.