Reply #43: Who is to say....

[TAZller]

that the husband had any more control of this woman than the police did whom felt it necessary to handcuff and shackle her after missing a flight. It is highly presumptive (and clearly indicating you've never seen a loved one at their bottom) in assuming this was a trip that could be made with the husband along. Often prior to getting help addicts will push friends and family so far away that all they can do is watch them either spiral out of control or hope they help themselves. It is conceivable that she demanded to make this trip alone and on her own tems. She could have flipped out and never given him the opportunity to join her.... What do you suggest...the husband tie her up and drag her by her hair into treatment. He was likely very worried about her, but even a husband can only do so much in the face of irrationality. To blame him is akin to blaming a drug addicts family for allowing one to commit suicide. At some point personal responsibility of the addict must be exercised to its own end.

But the point is she died when she was rendered helpless while she was already in a diminished capacity. Even if she was not out of control and had merely died by passing out and choking on her own vomit... the police would, should, and I believe will be held negligent in the responibility they took upon themselves when they placed her in their custody. She was no longer in her own custody by police action and I would hate to live in a police state where this responsibility is routinely ignored and not litigated.