{"id":315558,"date":"2024-07-15T13:49:44","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T18:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=315558"},"modified":"2024-07-15T01:33:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T06:33:34","slug":"assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/","title":{"rendered":"Assisted suicide advocates capitalize on point-blank range murder of woman by her husband"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

An Arizona man who shot his wife point-blank says he did it to end her so-called “pain and suffering,” and his story has quickly become a rallying point for assisted suicide advocates.<\/p>\n

According to court documents<\/a>, 67-year-old Michael Gelleny shot his wife, 65-year-old Brenda, at their home. He claimed he had planned to kill himself afterwards also, but couldn’t go through with it, and instead, called the Goodyear Police Department and confessed. Gelleny said he shot her once, in the back of the head, \u201cto make it as quick as possibly (sic) without pain,\u201d and that he kissed her and told her he loved her before murdering her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe stated she had been in pain and suffering for over four years and he decided to end her life,\u201d the probable cause statement said. \u201cMichael stated he had been thinking of killing his wife for a couple of weeks, however since Monday of this week, he decided to actually do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has since been arrested and charged with one count of first-degree murder, and one count of tampering with physical evidence.<\/p>\n

While any specific illness Brenda may have been suffering is not yet known, Fox 10 Phoenix reported<\/a> that, in 2022, she posted on Facebook about her struggles. In the post, which remains publicly available<\/a>, Brenda outlined problems with depression, financial difficulties, the death of her oldest son, and estrangement from her youngest son. “I have nothing left. Nothing to live for,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

READ: Man who shot wife in alleged \u2018mercy killing\u2019 gets 20 years in prison<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Arizona End-of-Life Options quickly took the opportunity to exploit Brenda’s death by turning it into a plea for legalized assisted suicide.<\/p>\n

“I think we want to have choices and freedom and control over the way we live, and dying is a part of living. We want to have control over that too,” Mark Savan, executive director for the group, told Fox 10 Phoenix, and said assisted suicide is about more than just physical pain. “It’s about loss of autonomy, being a burden on others and probably the biggest one, is not being able to do the things that make life enjoyable for that person. I think it’s a matter of personal freedom.”<\/p>\n

Brenda, however, did not get the opportunity to exercise any kind of personal freedom; moreover, she was clearly struggling with mental health issues, which would have made it impossible for her to freely and willingly choose assisted death.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the romanticization or rationalization of murder as mercy has grown in recent years, with many of the perpetrators claiming it was an issue of so-called “assisted suicide.” Often, they receive just a slap on the wrist \u2014 or no punishment at all. One media article called the murder of a woman with dementia by her husband a “love story<\/a>.” In two separate cases, where men murdered their ill and elderly parents, they received no punishment<\/a> and were told by the judges that these were acts of love and mercy<\/a>. Will Gelleny be held accountable for the brutal murder of his wife?<\/p>\n

The DOJ put a pro-life grandmother in jail for protesting the killing of preborn children. Please take 30-seconds to TELL CONGRESS: STOP THE DOJ FROM TARGETING PRO-LIFE AMERICANS.<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Arizona man who shot his wife point-blank says he did it to end her so-called “pain and suffering,” and his story has quickly become a rallying point for assisted suicide advocates. According to court documents, 67-year-old Michael Gelleny shot his wife, 65-year-old Brenda, at their home. He claimed he had planned to kill himself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":315578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAssisted suicide advocates capitalize on point-blank range murder of woman by her husband<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gelleny said he shot her once, in the back of the head, and that he kissed her and told her he loved her before murdering her.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Assisted suicide advocates capitalize on point-blank range murder of woman by her husband\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gelleny said he shot her once, in the back of the head, and that he kissed her and told her he loved her before murdering her.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-15T18:49:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-15T06:33:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/gelleny-murder-assisted-suicide.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\"},\"headline\":\"Assisted suicide advocates capitalize on point-blank range murder of woman by her husband\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-15T18:49:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-15T06:33:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/\"},\"wordCount\":546,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\",\"Newsbreak\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/\",\"name\":\"Assisted suicide advocates capitalize on point-blank range murder of woman by her husband\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-15T18:49:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-15T06:33:34+00:00\",\"description\":\"Gelleny said he shot her once, in the back of the head, and that he kissed her and told her he loved her before murdering her.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Assisted suicide advocates capitalize on point-blank range murder of woman by her husband\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\",\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cassy Cooke\"},\"description\":\"Cassy has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, most of which have been spent covering pro-life issues like abortion, disability rights, euthanasia, and more.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/cassy-fiano\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Assisted suicide advocates capitalize on point-blank range murder of woman by her husband","description":"Gelleny said he shot her once, in the back of the head, and that he kissed her and told her he loved her before murdering her.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Assisted suicide advocates capitalize on point-blank range murder of woman by her husband","og_description":"Gelleny said he shot her once, in the back of the head, and that he kissed her and told her he loved her before murdering her.","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2024-07-15T18:49:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-15T06:33:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/gelleny-murder-assisted-suicide.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cassy Cooke","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cassy Cooke","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/"},"author":{"name":"Cassy Cooke","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392"},"headline":"Assisted suicide advocates capitalize on point-blank range murder of woman by her husband","datePublished":"2024-07-15T18:49:44+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-15T06:33:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/"},"wordCount":546,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Analysis","Newsbreak"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/","name":"Assisted suicide advocates capitalize on point-blank range murder of woman by her husband","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-07-15T18:49:44+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-15T06:33:34+00:00","description":"Gelleny said he shot her once, in the back of the head, and that he kissed her and told her he loved her before murdering her.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/assisted-suicide-capitalize-murder-woman-husband\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Assisted suicide advocates capitalize on point-blank range murder of woman by her husband"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392","name":"Cassy Cooke","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cassy Cooke"},"description":"Cassy has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, most of which have been spent covering pro-life issues like abortion, disability rights, euthanasia, and more.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/cassy-fiano\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315558"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315579,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315558\/revisions\/315579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}