ILLEGAL OPERATION

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 45, 21 February 1918, Page 8

ILLEGAL OPERATION

FIVE YEARS' IMPRISONMENT.

(II TELEGRAPH.—TRESS ASSOCIATION.)

AUCKLAND, This Day. At the Supreme Court, Mary Rush, alias Haslett, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for having performed an illegal operation on Elsie M'Farland. Mr. Justice Stringer eaid the prisoner had been convicted on very clear evidence. He was unable to find any circumstance to mitigrate the offence. It had been, suggested by counsel that the severity of the punishment in these cases might cause reluctance on the part of juries to convict. This was fairly evident, but if the law was too severe it should be altered. It had also been said that the immunity enjoyed by persons who submitted to illegal operations should be. taken into account. The law 6aid that while life imprisonment might be the punishment for anyone guilty of an illegal operation, the maximum penalty for those who submitted to an illegal operation was seven years' imprisonment. The difference in punishment was due to the fact that in one caee the crime was committed for money-making; in } the other it was.usually resorted to as 'the result of great distraction, fear of shame, or exposure;