ABSTRACT
Robert Latimer is a Canadian canola farmer who was convicted of second-degree murder for killing his quadriplegic daughter. His case provides an illuminating window which explores Zizek's Lacanian ethics. During her delivery, Latimer's daughter Tracy suffered from an interruption in her oxygen supply, which left her with a severe case of cerebral palsy. Latimer has engaged in a concerted and passionate, if undiplomatic, letter writing campaign to the supreme court of Canada. According to Kant, ethical action meets the criterion that it be expressed in the form of a maxim applicable to all situations and circumstances. The act can never be translated into a universal maxim. By definition, it cannot be universalized within the socio-symbolic terms whose inconsistency the act's performance, for this reason, will expose. From Zizek's Lacanian perspective, the very fact that no rationalization of Latimer's act is amenable to translation into a new, universal legal or ethical principle actually serves as evidence of its inherently ethical nature.
