Should Ian Brady be allowed to live?

So today, I am actually blogging about something really controversial and topical at the moment. I'm just gonna go ahead and put my disclaimer out there, that these are only my opinions! Anything that I call a 'fact' has been thoroughly researched, but everything else is just my opinion. Okay, that's the boring bit done...

I don't know how many of you watch the news, but, currently Ian Brady is dominating the headlines. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were known as the 'Moors Murderers'. They killed five children aged 10-17; Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans. It is believed that at least four of the victims were sexually assaulted by Brady. Myra Hindley would lure the children to Saddleworth Moor by asking them to help her with something, such as looking for a lost glove, where Brady would then assault and kill them. The murders took place between July 1963 and October 1965. The trial took place in 1966, where both Brady and Hindley were sentenced to life imprisonment. Hindley died of a condition linked to her heart disease in 2002, but Brady is still alive - against his best wishes. 

Ian Brady made it very clear that he wanted to die, and began a hunger strike 14 years ago. He was then put on a drip, so that he did not have the power to control whether he lived or died, because so many people wanted justice for what he had done. 

So, on to the debate... Ian Brady wants to be moved to a normal prison (he has been in Ashworth Hospital in Mersyside, after being classed as insane). He claims that he has been 'mistreated by the system' - it's not like he's ever mistreated anyone in his life... 

There are so many people who want Ian Brady to be killed, but personally I disagree with this. I am aware how much it is costing our country; in 2009, Sky News reported that Ian Brady had claimed 'you've wasted £3 million keeping me alive'. He isn't worth a single penny of this. HOWEVER, I believe that he should be forced to stay alive, because Brady wants to die! Why should we let him get what he wants when he denied his victims of what they wanted? When he brutally murdered five children for no reason at all? When he let Winnie Bennett die not knowing where the body of her son (Keith Bennett) was? I think him being alive is disgusting when there are hundreds dying everyday in accidents, attacks and illnesses. But I do not, for a single second, want him to get what he wants. This is the justice being done. He is most certainly suffering now, which I can safely say, pleases the majority of the country. I am a rather liberal person, and I like to avoid suffering where possible, but in cases like this, I get rather passionate - as do most people - and I want justice to be done. It is as simple as that really. 

If anyone has any comments on this issue, then I would love to hear them! I sincerely apologise if I have offended anybody by what I have written - these are just my personal views. I would also like to take this opportunity to pay respect to each and every one of Brady and Hindley's victims, and hope that they rest in peace. I would also like to send my condolences to the families of the victims and I hope that they could continue with their lives even after the loss of such a beloved family member.

Thank you for reading.  

Comments