1Questions over qigong and assisted suicide at Guangzhou murder trial
Posted: 07/30/2013 10:00 amAccording to the US National Library of Medicine, qigong, when practised inappropriately, may induce abnormal psychosomatic responses and even mental disorders. This process is known as Zou huo ru mo (走火入魔), and it may be the reason behind one of the most peculiar and multi-faceted murder trials in Guangzhou this year.
Li Wei is on trial in Huangpu District Court after his wife was found burned to death on her bathroom floor on January 27 this year. Li’s defense is somewhat muddled as he has claimed that it was a tragically unsuccessful attempt to cure her many debilitating illnesses, but also hinted that it was an assisted suicide.
Li and his wife Han Mei got married in 2002 and, by all accounts, were a happy couple. They had never been known to quarrel or fight and lived a simple life in which the unemployed husband stayed at home and spent most of his time practicing qigong while his wife worked at a bookshop, in spite of suffering from several debilitating illnesses that meant she was in considerable pain most of the time.
Interested in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Li was known to try out a variety of healing methods on his wife, including moxibustion which involved scarring her skin.
Such scars, as well as cuts and bloodstains, were seen on Han’s body when she was found naked and face down on her bathroom floor by her 13 year-old son Qiangqiang on the night of January 27. Li claims not to remember what happened and his attempts to explain it have been as bizarre as they are confusing.
Li claims his wife wanted to be burned to “take away the pain” but it is not clear as to whether this was an ill-advised attempt at using an unorthodox healing methods or assisted suicide.
Li was initially thrown in jail but his lawyers are pushing to have him stay in a mental asylum instead as they say he was not responsible for his actions due to his qigong-induced mental illness.
However, this phenomenon is not clearly recognised in Chinese law, so the trial could have one or two more twists.
This is not “according to the US National Library of Medicine.” That is like saying, “according to the New York Public Library,” when you do your research there. The link is to an article written by a doctor associated with a hospital in Singapore. He published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry in 1999–the same year that the CPC also decided to go after Falun Gong, a religion/cult that incorporates Qigong practice. Seriously, Kevin, you can do better research than this!