George Tiller
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George Tiller
Born George Tiller
August 8, 1977
Wichita, Kansas, U.S
Died May 31, 2009 (aged 67)
Wichita, Kansas
Fields Late-Term Abortion
George Richard Tiller (August 8, 1941 – May 31, 2009) was a doctor specializing in late-term abortions in Wichita, Kansas in the United States. He was the medical director of an abortion clinic in Wichita, Women's Health Care Services, one of only three nationwide which would provide these controversial procedures.
The clinic itself is unusual in that it offers funerary services to its patients. Some of these services include photographs, footprinting and handprinting, baptism, cremation, arrangement for burial in or out of state, and arrangement for amniocentesis and/or autopsy. Tiller was the target of anti-abortion violence.
On August 19, 1993, he was shot in both arms outside of the Wichita clinic by Shelley Shannon, who received an 11-year prison sentence for the crime. On May 31, 2009, Tiller was shot to death as he served as an usher during church services.
George in happier days slaughtering the unwanted
Contents
1 Background
2 1993 shooting
3 Controversy
3.1 Christin Gilbert
3.2 The O'Reilly Factor controversy
4 Trial, Acquittal and Continuing Investigation
5 Death
6 References
7 External links
Background
Tiller studied at the University of Kansas School of Medicine from 1963 to 1967. Shortly thereafter, he held a medical internship with United States Navy, and served as flight surgeon in Oakland, California in 1969 and 1970. In July 1970 he planned to start a dermatology residency. However on August 21, 1970, his parents, sister and brother-in-law were killed in an aircraft accident. In her will, his sister had requested that Dr. Tiller take care of her 1 year old son. Dr. Tiller had intended to go back to Wichita, close up his father's family practice and then go back to become a dermatologist. However, he quickly felt pressure to take over his father's family practice. Tiller's father had performed abortions at his practice. After hearing about a woman that had died from an illegal abortion, Dr. Tiller stayed in Wichita to continue his father's practice.
1993 shooting
Throughout his career, Tiller was a frequent target of anti-abortion violence[citation needed]. On August 19, 1993, Tiller was shot in both arms by fundamentalist terrorist Shelley Shannon. At the time she attacked Tiller, Shannon had been a pro-life activist for five years and had written letters of support to Michael Griffin, murderer of David Gunn. She called Griffin "the awesomest, greatest hero of our time." She traveled to the Wichita clinic, a site of frequent demonstrations by abortion-rights and pro-life activists, and shot Tiller with a semiautomatic pistol.
At her trial in state court, she testified that there was nothing immoral about trying to kill Tiller. The jury deliberated for only an hour before convicting Shannon of attempted murder; she was sentenced to 11 years. The following year, Shannon was sentenced to an additional 20 years in prison on charges of arson, interference with commerce by force and interstate travel in aid of racketeering in connection to her participation in several fires and acid attacks on abortion clinics.
Controversy
Christin Gilbert
Christin Gilbert, a 19-year-old woman with Down Syndrome from Keller, Texas, died in January 2005 after a multi-day abortion procedure performed at Tiller's facility, though reports conflict as to whether the abortion was performed by Tiller himself or by LeRoy Carhart. Gilbert had been 28 weeks pregnant. The autopsy stated that Gilbert died of sepsis following the abortion. Tiller was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts. After a petition from Operation Rescue, a grand jury was convened to probe the death, which resulted in no indictments against Tiller.
The O'Reilly Factor controversy
On Friday, November 3, 2006, Bill O'Reilly featured an exclusive segment on his show, The O'Reilly Factor, saying that he has an "inside source" with official clinic documentation indicating that George Tiller performed late-term abortions to alleviate "temporary depression" in the pregnant woman. According to reporting data provided to the Kansas Board of Healing Arts for the year 1998, all of the post-viable "partial-birth" (dilation and extraction) abortion procedures performed in Kansas during that year were performed because "the attending physician believe[d] that continuing the pregnancy [would] constitute a substantial and irreversible impairment of the patient's mental function."[citation needed] Tiller responded to O'Reilly's statements by demanding an investigation into the "inside source" through which the information was leaked, suggesting that Phill Kline, then the Kansas Attorney General, was responsible. Kline denied the charge.
Trial, Acquittal and Continuing Investigation
Tiller went on trial in March 2009, charged with nineteen misdemeanors for allegedly consulting a second physician in late-term abortion cases who was not truly "independent" as required by Kansas state law.
The case became a cause célèbre for both supporters and opponents of abortion rights. Columnist Jack Cashill compared the trial to the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals, while NYU Professor Jacob Appel described Tiller as "a genuine hero who ranks alongside Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr. in the pantheon of defenders of human liberty."
On March 27, 2009, Tiller was found not guilty of all 19 misdemeanor charges stemming from some abortions he performed at his Wichita clinic in 2003. Although aquitted of criminal charges, the state’s Board of Healing Arts continues to investigate ethical violations that mirror prosecutors' allegations.
Death
George Tiller was shot to death by a terrorist on May 31, 2009, during worship services at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita where he was serving as an usher.
The gunman fled, but a 51-year-old suspect was arrested some 170 miles away in suburban Kansas City three hours after the shooting, Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz said. Police said they had been looking for a suspect who fled in a car registered in the Kansas City suburb of Merriam.
KSHB-TV reported that Scott Roeder was arrested on May 31, 2009 as a person of interest in the murder of Dr. Tiller.
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