An elderly man in China's Hubei province has been awarded a four-year jail term for killing his cancer-afflicted wife.
In March, the 70-year-old man's wife, 67, was diagnosed with advanced sigmoid colon cancer and could not receive an operation as she had a heart condition, the China Daily reported Monday.
The man said his wife asked him to "take her to the river" since she felt her pain was getting too much for her to carry on further in life.
On April 14, a fisherman called up police to say that he saw a man pushing a woman on a quilt into a nearby river.
The man was detained after the drowned woman's body was recovered.
During trial, the man reportedly said he only meant to relieve his wife of her pain. Since the old man was disabled, the court allowed the man to serve his sentence outside prison.