After reading about Trumps alleged recent comments about the "better choice" of letting the disabled son of a nephew die I came to think of an age-old practice which has given rise to some gruesome legends in Japan: The Ubasute. According to history the practice of bringing aging or sick family members who were dependent on the care of younger and healthier relatives to a remote place and leave them to die there more than a legend: It did happen. Actually there are some instances of the practice being alive even today, for instance there is the case of Ritsuko Tanaka: She, who was 46 at the time, abandoned her demented father on an expressway and then went home on her own. When the old man was found walking around, very confused and unable to remember his name, he only knew the name of his daughter which led to her arrest.
Another more or less recent Japan instance was when 63 year old Katsuo Kurokawa took his elderly, disabled sister, Sachiko, to a remote place and left her because "she had become "troublesome". Presumably she died shortly afterwards.
It's easy to condemn a Japanese habit like e.g. Ubasute, but we shouldn't forget that something like it, targeting unwanted children, the disabled or the elderly, has existed in many different countries all over the world: Those who are dependent on us are burdensome when they become an obligation. If they are with people who love them they may be protected, but that doesn't make them less burdensome: The problem is there to be SOLVED, but isn't always ....
However, there is an interesting detail one shouldn't forget: Canada has an euthanasia program. Did the nurse try to convince the sick woman to commit assisted suicide? If so then the program has led to a morally slippery slope that may lead to many future atrocities ....
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