好英语网是安乐死还是谋杀？
MASSILLON, Ohio — John Wise tipped the taxi driver $25 that night, even though the driver had been late to pick him up and late getting him to Akron General hospital, about 30 miles north of this former steel town. Why he had to get there with such urgency the driver did not know, and did not ask, but before driving away, he wished Mr. Wise luck.
俄亥俄州，马西隆市—那天晚上，尽管约好的出租车来迟了，约翰·怀斯(John Wise)还是付了25美元的小费。他的目的地是这个昔日钢铁城以北30英里的阿克伦总医院(Akron General hospital)。司机不知道怀斯因何这般着急，他也没问。但在离开前，他祝怀斯好运。
“I told him, ‘I hope everything goes as well as possible for you,’ ” the driver, Dale Doyle, recalled.
“我跟他说，‘祝你万事如意’，”出租车司机戴尔·多伊尔(Dale Doyle)回忆道。
Moments later, Mr. Wise quietly slipped into Room 3201 of the intensive care unit, where his wife of 45 years had been for a week. He put a gun to her left temple and pulled the trigger.
片刻之后，怀斯悄悄溜进重症监护区3201病房，与他结婚45年的妻子已躺在这里一周了。他掏出枪，对准妻子的左太阳穴，扣动了扳机。
The Aug. 4 shooting, coming just weeks after a gunman killed 12 people in Colorado, sent panic through the hospital ward that another rampage was under way. “I hear screaming out there,” a breathless nurse told an operator in a call to 911. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
距12人遇难的科罗拉多枪杀事件才不过几周，8月4日的这声枪响给医院带来了一片恐慌，他们以为另一场暴风雨即将到来。“我听到那边传来尖叫声，”一个护士上气不接下气地告诉911接线员：“我不知道出了什么事。”
But friends and relatives of the couple believe that Mr. Wise, 66, who had no criminal record and no known history of violence, meant only to end the suffering of his wife, Barbara, 65. She had been hospitalized since July 28, when Mr. Wise found her collapsed at home, on the bathroom floor, vomiting and choking. Mr. Wise later told friends that she had suffered a triple aneurysm.
66岁的怀斯既无案底、又无暴力史，认识这对夫妇的亲友们都深信，他唯一的目的就是结束65岁的妻子芭芭拉(Barbara)的痛苦。7月28日，怀斯发现妻子晕倒在卫生间的地板上，剧烈呕吐，快要窒息，立刻送她住院治疗。后来怀斯告诉朋友，芭芭拉长了三处动脉瘤。
The killing has touched off debate in this town of 32,000 and the hamlets surrounding it over when life is no longer worth living and who has the right to decide. Last week, the local newspaper here, The Independent, asked readers to weigh in: was this “Mercy or Murder?”
案件在这个有3.2万人口的小城和周边村庄里掀起了激烈辩论：生命究竟到何时就不必再延续，又是谁掌握了裁决的权利。前一周，当地的《独立报》(The Independent)请读者参与论争：这是安乐死还是谋杀？
This week, a grand jury in Akron charged Mr. Wise with aggravated murder. He will be arraigned on Friday and is being held on $1 million bond and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
上周，阿克伦市大陪审团以蓄意谋杀罪指控怀斯。他于周五被传唤，暂定100万美元的保释金，并可能面临着最高至终身监禁，不得假释的判决。
Prosecutors and judges have struggled to determine what level of punishment is appropriate in so-called mercy killings. Donna Cohen, a professor of aging and mental health at the University of South Florida who has studied the issue extensively, worries that, though such killings are rare now, their numbers could rise as baby boomers — who are more prone to depression than their parents’ generation — grow older and geriatric care lags behind.
这起所谓的安乐死事件应当受到什么程度的处罚，检察官和法官在艰难地抉择着。南佛罗里达大学(University of South Florida)老龄化与心理健康学教授唐娜·科恩(Donna Cohen)对此案进行了大量调研后表达了她的担忧：尽管目前此类谋杀尚属罕见，但随着婴儿潮一代（1946-1964年出生的美国人）步入老年，类似行为可能会增多。这些人比他们的父辈更容易抑郁，得到的老年病方面的保健又不充分。
Sentences have ranged from time served with probation and mental health treatment to, on rare occasions, life in prison. In March, a Washington State man accused of fatally shooting his wife told a judge his wife had an inoperable brain tumor and had begged him for several months to kill her. He is free without bail while prosecutors weigh charges.
量刑结果可能相差悬殊，轻可以是缓期执行有期徒刑外加精神治疗，重到极个别的终身监禁。今年三月，华盛顿州一名男子因枪杀了妻子而被起诉。他告诉法官，妻子患了无法手术的脑瘤，已经连续好几个月求他结束自己的生命了。尽管检方要求判刑，但他还是被无罪释放了。
The hospital has not released the details of Ms. Wise’s medical condition. Before she was suddenly hospitalized, she had been the healthier one in the couple and had cared for her husband for years as he battled bladder cancer and later diabetes and neuropathy, a nerve disease that left him barely able to walk or drive.
医院没有透露芭芭拉的详细病情。在她突然住院之前，她是夫妻二人中较健康的那位。怀斯此前罹患膀胱癌斗争，后来又患上糖尿病及神经病变，几乎丧失了行走和驾驶能力，受妻子多年照顾。
As grim as things seemed, Mr. Wise signaled to friends hints of optimism. His wife was breathing on her own and could open her eyes, and three days before the shooting he told a friend that she had uttered the words “good morning” to a doctor.
情况虽很不妙，怀斯却向朋友们传递过一丝乐观情绪，他说妻子能够自主呼吸，睁开眼睛了。就在案发的前三天，他还告诉朋友，芭芭拉向医生说了句“早上好”。
Mr. Wise’s lawyer, Paul Adamson, said he had not yet seen the medical records. But he said that doctors had advised his client that her prognosis was not hopeful.
怀斯的律师保罗·亚当森(Paul Adamson)说他目前还没看到病历，但医生告诉过怀斯，芭芭拉的预后极不乐观。
“I guess the most succinct way I could put it is she could die at any time or she could linger for an unspecified period of time,” Mr. Adamson said. “But it was not likely that she was ever going to recover to the point where she could care for herself.”
“我想，简而言之，就是她可能在任何时候去世，也可能再活上说不准的一段时间，”亚当森说：“不过不可能恢复到生活自理的状态了。”
The couple had signed living wills some years ago, Mr. Adamson said, though he had not seen them. “They both made it clear they did not want to be maintained on life support,” he said.
亚当森提到，怀斯夫妇在几年前立下过生前遗嘱（living wills，要求在日后病情进入终末期时不要用人工手段延长生命的书面声明），不过他还没看到。“两人都明确表示不希望用人工维持的办法来延续生命。”
Mr. Adamson said his client recalled the shooting only vaguely. But what he does remember clearly is a visit he and his son made to the hospital earlier that day. As Mr. Wise stood by her bedside, he later told his lawyer, he saw a tear roll down her cheek.
亚当森说，怀斯只能模糊地回忆起枪杀的过程，但却清楚地记得那天早些时候和儿子一同去探望芭芭拉时的情景。怀斯后来告诉律师，他站在她旁边，看到一滴眼泪滑过脸颊。
“She hadn’t verbalized anything, but I think it’s fair to say he felt for the first time he was making some connection with her, and what he saw was agony, desperation and pain,” Mr. Adamson said. “And he knew that he had to do something.”
“她什么都没有讲，但我觉得这样说应该不为过：怀斯感觉到他和妻子之间建立了某种联系，他看到的是妻子的挣扎、绝望与痛苦。”亚当森说：“他知道自己一定要做些什么。”
Terry Henderson, who has known Mr. Wise for 30 years, believes that Mr. Wise intended to kill himself immediately afterward but that the gun jammed after one shot.
特里·亨德森(Terry Henderson)已经认识怀斯夫妇30年了。他坚信怀斯杀死妻子后，本来要马上自杀的，可是枪卡膛了。
A doctor who entered the room after the shot and stayed with Mr. Wise for several minutes until security guards entered and subdued him told The Akron Beacon Journal that Mr. Wise tried frantically to unjam his gun, especially after he learned that his wife was still alive. (She died the next day.)
枪杀发生后，一位医生进入病房与怀斯共处了几分钟，后来保安进来按住了怀斯。医生告诉《阿克伦灯塔报》(Akron Beacon Journal)，那时候怀斯发现妻子还没有死，疯狂地想把枪修好。（芭芭拉直到第二天才死亡。）
“Oh, she’s alive. How could she still be alive?” Dr. Michael Passero Jr. recalled Mr. Wise as saying.
“啊！她还活着！她怎么可能还活着呢？”小迈克尔·帕塞罗(Micahel Passero Jr.)医生回忆怀斯说的话。
The couple lived quiet, deeply private lives, friends and relatives said. They raised a son, Mark, now 44, and lived in a quaint, red-brick bungalow that Ms. Wise kept meticulously neat. The son declined to be interviewed.
亲友们描述说，怀斯夫妇一直过着非常安静私密的生活，他们育有一子，名叫马克(Mark)，现年44岁。两人住在一间古朴的红砖平房里，芭芭拉把它收拾得极其整洁。马克拒绝了采访要求。
Mr. Wise, who wore an Amish-style beard, though he was raised Catholic, was a steelworker for 35 years before illness forced him to retire in the early 2000s. He met regularly with friends for morning coffee at a local restaurant.
怀斯先生虽是天主教徒，却蓄着阿米什（Amish，极端传统主义者，拒绝一切现代科技产品）式样的胡须。他当了35年的炼钢工人，直至病痛迫使他在大约10年前退休。他经常在早上与朋友们到当地一家餐馆喝咖啡。
But aside from that the couple seemed to rarely stray from home. Even neighbors who regularly saw them working in their flower garden knew little about them.
除此之外，夫妻二人似乎很少出家门。即便是总能看见他们在自家花园里干活的邻居也对其知之甚少。
Ms. Wise’s only sister, who lives 25 miles south of here in Mineral City, said she had not even known Ms. Wise was sick until after the shooting.
芭芭拉唯一的妹妹住在马西隆以南25英里的矿城，在听说芭芭拉被枪杀之前，她甚至不知道她病了。
“They were really friendly people, but they liked to be by themselves,” said the sister, Sandra Schafrath.
芭芭拉的妹妹，桑德拉·沙弗拉斯(Sandra Schafrath)说：“他们是非常友善的人，不过是更喜欢过自己的日子罢了。”
Ms. Schafrath said she believed Mr. Wise was her sister’s first serious boyfriend. He was easygoing and big and muscular, until illness wore him down, Ms. Schafrath said. She said she had never heard the couple argue.
沙弗拉斯相信怀斯是她姐姐认真交的第一个男朋友。他随和、高大、健壮，直到疾病将他击倒。沙弗拉斯说她从未听这对夫妻争吵过。
“They were in love, there’s no doubt,” she said. “She would say something funny and he would say, ‘Oh, Barbie.’ ”
“他们彼此深爱，毋庸置疑。”她说：“每当她说起什么好玩的事情，他就会说‘哦，芭比。’”
The Wises’ story was not supposed to end this way, said Mr. Henderson, the family friend. Mr. Wise had told him years ago as his illnesses got worse that he was sure he would die before his wife. He even made a detailed list for her of things to do and numbers to call when he died.
他们的好朋友亨德森认为，怀斯夫妇的故事本不应这样画上句号。几年前怀斯向他提过，自己的病情越来越糟，肯定要比芭芭拉先走一步。他甚至列过一张详细的单子，告诉她在自己去世后要做些什么，打哪些电话。
“That’s how much this guy loved his wife,” Mr. Henderson said. “He wanted to make life as easy as possible for her.”
“他就是如此爱他的妻子，”亨德森说：“竭尽所能让她过得好。”