Is this morally and ethically wrong?

Question

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=490415&in_page_id=1811&ct=5

And why has it been allowed to continue. So far 1/3 of the money sent in by decent caring people to "LOOK FOR" Madeleine has been spent on paying the McFraudsters mortgage. Is having a massive house more important to them than finding their daughter. Gerry said he was prepared to sell his house, then decided to use Madeleine's money to pay the mortgage instead. It is TOTALLY wrong. The money should be spent on looking for Madeleine or given to childrens charities. Not be spent on the McFraudsters mortgage just because they like living in a big house.

They could sell their house and buy a more modest one.

Answer 1

I agree, according the the cleverly worded aims of the fund they're well within their rights to pay their mortgage as it comes under living expenses.

However, it is in bad taste - especially as they've never used the money to aid themselves in the search for Madeleine which I think the majority of donations were made.

Did people donate money to pay a stranger's mortgage?

No way.

People donated to help FIND Madeleine.

EDIT - Just had a vision of headteacher at morning assembly applauding the school kids for holding jumble sale and raising £500 for the McCanns' mortgage....

Well done kids xx

I agree with Shady, majority of people may have assumed 'living expenses' meant whilst staying in Portugal until Madeleine found.

Answer 2

I'm amazed at the way they lose a child due to neglect and then get the general public to pay their bills so that they lose nothing more than someone they neglected. I think they should lose the house and live in a smaller place on principle. How they can live with the fact that they lost a child and have gone unpunished is beyond me. Personally if I lost my one of my children I would feel so guilty that I wouldn't be able to pay my mortgage with generous strangers money. I'd probably be apologising to everyone and throwing everything I owned at finding my daughter rather than worrying about the mortgage payments.

Answer 3

Yes I think so too, I dont understand why so many people feel sympathy for them, I have seen people losing their jobs and then their houses because a family member is missing or very sick, of course this simple people dont have the support that the mccanns have. Is not fair. I wonder how the simple people that donated money feel like. Because in the media they didnt say or stress the fact that the fund would be used to help the family financially but they said it was to FIND MADELEINE!!

Answer 4

My friend who works for the NHS (RMN) has said that in certain circumstances you can get special paid leave for year which i have no doubt gerry would be using.
That money was set up to find maddeline and not to pay for their life style.
If ordinary people cant afford to pay their full mortgage they either loose their house or pay just the interest every month until they can up their payments why should they be any different they clearly have plenty of money of their own lets face it £45k for a PART time job £75k for gerrys income, and thats before his advisory role to the government. Another interesting fact that my friend also divulged in was that NHS staff have access to reduced rate mortgages so in the words of my friend "i wouldnt say their house was at immediate risk due to their profession".
This really is getting silly now £365k not spent on looking for maddy how very very wrong!

Answer 5

I agree. The money should be used to look for Madeleine, and any money left over from that should go to a children's charity. I'm sure a lot of the people who made donations can not afford to live in a house like that.

Answer 6

While I don't think they killed Maddie, I do think the money from the fund shouldn't be used for the McCanns' mortgage. The public donated that money to help the search for Madeline and they did so not only in good faith but to be there should a big break in the case ever come (and who knows what may lie in the future?). If the McCanns' are running low on cash, one of them should return to work.

Answer 7

Yes i do think its morally wrong....and i think it completely rubs people up the wrong way....the McCann's Team just seem to deliberately going out of their way to bring criticism upon themselves.......what are they thinking of...surely they must know what peoples reaction would be to this statement about the funds and their mortgage....are they really that naive to think it would be generally accepted as OK?
The fund should have been frozen immediately once their status changed from witness to suspect....im just amazed at the whole thing...and it just proves the continued arrogance of this couple, and especially Gerry McCann !.....
Who do they honestly think they are..and what makes them so very different from the other thousands of parents who's children are missing ?
As a mother i have tried desperately to sympathies with Kate to some degree...regardless of whether she is guilty or innocent of anything...but my patience as a simple member of the public has worn thin...as they do say that 'god helps those who help themselves' i see no evidence of that....just arrogance,presumptuousness and absolute belief that everyone else is to blame..except the McCann's themselves!

Answer 8

Geez, wish someone would pay my mortgage. If it's true, that is absolutely disgusting!! (but doesn't surprise me). They should be ashamed of themselves. They should downsize to a smaller house like anyone else would do in the circumstances. Wonder if Gerry will put money back into the fund when he returns to work????

ps. I wonder how the pensioners who gave to the fund, would feel now - terribly let down I would say!

Answer 9

I think that when people were silly enough to donate money they would have thought that the maccanns were going to stay in portugal until Madeleine was found and it may have been accepeptable to use some of the money to stay out there until then.
sure they might as well be at home trying to con the public as be out there in Portugal doing it I mean it is not like they ever looked for the child when they should have been.
but I suppopse to be fair to them why would any body look for some one when they already know where that person is

Answer 10

Hi, did anyone read Holly Well's fathers book? it was tragic, utterly tragic. That family struggled for money, they were not rich and neither did anyone give them huge amounts of money to use at their 'disposal'.. I never even thought about the financial side of this kind of nightmare until i read his book.. he had to go back to work when he was far from ready!! And the 'compensation' they got was an absolute insult...