Emotions are part of the decisions of the individual. I don't see that they should be part of the decisions of the state. There is no way I would want to see any relative of mine suffer. In admittedly different contexts from this I already have, and it's soul-destroying -- and that experience lasted barely a few seconds but has left a lifelong scar. I can't imagine , and don't particularly want to, what it would be like to watch something many times worse than that happening over a much longer time period.
But I still maintain that the law needs to be extremely careful in this matter. And, yes, perhaps cold-hearted, but on the one hand you have the honest people who don't want to see suffering and on the other you have the dishonest who can and will find the tiniest loophole and exploit it mercilessly. I'm worried that this will be too high a price to pay.