AN ILLEGAL OPERATION
By Telegraph—Presn Association. • Auckland, February 21. At the Supreme Court, Mary Rush, alias Hnslett, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for having performed an illegal operation on Elsie M'Farland. Mr. Justice Springer said the prisoner had been, convicted on very clear evidence. Ho was unable to find any circumstances to mitigate the offence. It bad been suggested by counsel that the severity or the punishment in these cases might cause reluctance on the part of juries to convict. This was fairly ev'dent. ''but if the law was too severe it should bo altered. It had also been said that the immunity enjoyed by persons who submitted to illegaj operations should be taken .into account. The law said that while life imprisonment niiL'ht 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 j fact that in one case the crime was committed for money-making; in the s other it was usuallv resorted to as the 'result of great distraction, fear .of shame, or exposure.
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Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 133, 22 February 1918, Page 6
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190AN ILLEGAL OPERATION Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 133, 22 February 1918, Page 6
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