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The murder-suicide of an autistic British Columbia teenager and his mother — who said she was unable to care for him — has reignited the debate over support for caregivers and the right of the disabled to shape their own destinies.

When Angie Robinson killed her 16-year-old son Robert and then herself this month, she left a suicide note saying he had become unmanageable. The teen had grown too large and was violent against himself. Meanwhile, the resources available in her Prince Rupert community were inadequate.

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“Angie loved him more than anything on Earth,” relative Ron Watson said. “The shock for us was that she took his life.”

The disabled belong in society, no matter how severe their challenges, disability rights advocates say.

Killing a person, in part, because their care has become too much “subjugates their right to life through the opinion and judgment of the caregiver,” said Jim Derksen, a longtime Canadian disability rights advocate and past chairman of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.