Carol Carr is an American woman from the state of Georgia who became the center of a widely-publicized debate over euthanasia

Euthanasia

Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....

 when she killed her adult sons because they were suffering from Huntington's disease

Huntington's disease

Huntington's disease, chorea, or disorder , is a neurodegenerative genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and leads to cognitive decline and dementia. It typically becomes noticeable in middle age. HD is the most common genetic cause of abnormal involuntary writhing movements called chorea...

.

Killing and trial

Huntington's disease first appeared in the mother of Carr's husband. She passed it to a daughter who died from it, a son who committed suicide when he learned that he had it, and Carol's husband, Hoyt Scott. Eventually the disease left Hoyt, a factory worker, unable to move, swallow, talk or think. He died in 1995. By then Carol's oldest sons, Randy and Andy, both had the disease. On June 8, 2002, Carr killed both men in the room they shared at a Georgia nursing home.

James Scott of Hampton, Carr's only remaining son, who also suffers from Huntington's, said his mother acted out of love, and not out of malice. Watching the boys suffer in agony for 20 years really took its toll on both him and his mother. "I sat there and watched them with bed sores," he said. "It's just a miserable way to live. They couldn't talk. They couldn't communicate with each other. They would mumble." Both men died of a single gunshot wound to the head. After the shootings, Carol Carr, who was then 63, calmly walked to the lobby and waited for police. When questioned by police on the night of the shooting Carol Carr told them that she didn't want them to suffer anymore. Despite what she did at SunBridge Nursing Home in Griffin, James Scott still stands behind her. The lead detective on the case told Lee Williams, the Griffin Daily News crime reporter who broke the story, that he classified the murders as a "mercy killing." James Scott agreed. "She gave it her all taking care of them even while they were in a nursing home," Scott said. "She would go there as much as she could. She would change their bed linen and give them drinks."

Carr pleaded guilty to assisted suicide and was sentenced to 5 years in prison. After serving 21 months, she was released on parole in 2004. The parole board mandated that if Carr's surviving son, James, should become ill with Huntington's disease, she will be prohibited from serving as his primary caregiver. They also stipulated that Carr must receive mental-health counseling during her period of supervision.

Opinion and reaction

Many in Carr's hometown came to her defense. Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

 Professor Jacob Appel

Jacob M. Appel

Jacob M. Appel is an American author, bioethicist and social critic. He is best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics and euthanasia....

was among those most publicly and vocally critical of the case against Carr. He described Spalding County District Attorney Bill McBroom's decision to prosecute as a decision that "raises both ignorance and cruelty to new heights."