ILLEGAL OPERATIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 73, 23 February 1918, Page 8

ILLEGAL OPERATIONS.

THE LAW ON THE SUBJECT.

Per Press Association. Auckland, February 21

In the Supreme Court, Mary Hush alias Haslett, was sentenced to live years’ imprisonment for having performed an illegal operation on Elsie McFarland. -Mr Justice Stringer said the prisoner had been convicted on very clear evidence. He. was unnnahlo to find any circumstance to mitigate 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 he altered. It had also been said that the immunity enjoyed by persons who submitted to illegal operations should be taken into account. The law said that while life imprisonment might be the punishment tor anyone guilty of an illegal operation, the maximum penalty for those who submitted to an illegal operation was seven years’ imprisonment. The dif-' ference in punishment was due to the fact that in one case the crime was committed for money-making; in the other it was usually resorted to as the result of groat distraction, fear of shame, or exposure..