For Palm Springs man, grief and anger over an end-of-life decision
On the evening of July 2, Bill Bentinck, 87, was led from his Palm Springs home in handcuffs, in mourning and in shock.
The body of his wife of 25 years, Lynda, was still in the house, but there was no time to grieve. After telling police that his terminally ill wife had chosen to disconnect her oxygen supply and put an end to her suffering from emphysema, he was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Bentinck, a straight-talking man in the Jimmy Stewart mold, felt that he had made a difficult but compassionate choice in honoring his wife's last wish and not reconnecting the oxygen. But police saw it differently, and Bentinck, a retired entomologist and medical equipment designer, was about to endure a nightmarish three-day ordeal.
Bentinck was marched with other inmates late one night through a Banning jail compound in a jumpsuit and slippers that kept falling off. His pleas for help with a medical condition were repeatedly ignored, he said, and it took 24 hours before he was taken to a hospital for a catheterization, which is the only way he can empty his bladder. At the county jail in Banning, another inmate schooled him on racial divisions, explaining which toilets were for whites. And during one jail transfer, he was in leg irons.
more . . . http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0722-lopez-murder-20120722,0,2438578.column
= new reply since forum marked as read
