Well, that was sort of to be expected. After admitting, in two separate television segments, that he smothered an AIDS-stricken former lover to death with a hospital pillow, BBC presenter Ray Gosling, 70, was arrested.
Not that he’s going to be a very cooperative subject. He may have admitted assisted suicide on air to millions, but he said yesterday he’ll never give up the identity of his lover or when the act took place, “even under torture.”
Somebody needs to call Donald Rumsfeld.
asa1973
Leave it to queerty to make a joke out of this complicated issue. I am sure many people who were of age when AIDS was slautering our community can understand why Gosling did what he did. And why he would never give up the identity of his lover. I, personally, applaud him. I don’t know if I could ever have the courage.
Bob R
I think this poor man has been living with his guilt for too many years and just wanted to get it off his chest. To at last free himself of this awful secret.
In the early days of AIDS, even with the discovery of AZT, death was usually long and agonizing. I watched friends waste away, becoming living photographs of Concentration Camp inmates in their final days. Some had terrible allergic reaction to the AZT and suffered even more. From diagnosis to death average 6 to 12 months of suffering, physically and psychologically for all concerned. AIDS dementia was a common and horrible affliction, terrible for the sufferer, nightmarish for their loved ones and friends.
Opportunistic infections that failed to respond to any treatment made the last few weeks of life a living hell. Can you even imagine watching a loved one experience this and what would be going through your mind? Can I somehow release him from this agony? If only it was me and not him? How many of us would do the same thing this man did if the opportunity presented itself and we felt confident we wouldn’t be caught? Then having to live all those years with the doubt, the guilt, the pain of doing what he did. I think this man just wants release from his own agony now. He’s finally confronting those demons and if society punishes him for it, I don’t think they can punish him any more than he has already punished himself.
ML
@asa1973:
I don’t think this is a joke either. I would hope some of your readers might appreciate an occasional thoughtful topic admidst the Mornings Goods and Lady Gaga sightings but maybe I’m wrong.
Mike in Asheville, nee "in Brooklyn"
There are 2 distinct issues here, and neither are funny or humorous [snarky doesn’t always fit Queerty]: there is the issue of an arrest without the police having yet to find any physical evidence of a crime; AND there is the issue of euthanasia.
Regarding the arrest: clearly the arrest is premature. I am unsure of legal entitlements in Great Britain, but here in the US, I would demand my speedy trial. Until the police find otherwise, “habeas corpus,” where’s the body? Where is the evidence of a crime?
Based on Gosling’s statements, the event likely took place more than 20 years ago to a patient whose body was so wrecked by the effects of AIDS (extreme weight loss combined with multiple diseases eating away without an immune system to temper the many side-effect diseases). And a doctor who is aware of the patient’s condition not raising an eyebrow that the patient suddenly is dead. Even if the body is available for exhumation, it is going to be nearly impossible to prove murder over the stated cause of death.
Regarding the issue of euthanasia, those are shoes I hope never to have to walk in; but shoes I would walk in if necessary.
@No. 2 Bob R, has is right about the early days of the AIDS crisis. AIDS first slapped my face when my cousin died in 1985. During the next 12 years until the cocktail became available, I lost many friends and witnessed much suffering. Watching those close to you suffer is a difficult task yet the love and support one gives means so much that you do what you do. And witnessing all this while one is HIV+ too is a mind-fuck that is beyond explanation.
My boyfriend/now hubby and I made the same pact over 20 years ago. We got tested shortly after meeting in 1986; me poz, he neg (and remains so today). The worst part for me is knowing that he is the one (more likely than the other way) who would have to fulfill the pact: a nightmare for the remaining years of his life.
God bless Ray Gosling, hero to love.