WHEN LIFE IS A BURDEN

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 153, 28 June 1919, Page 17

WHEN LIFE IS A BURDEN

SHOULD DOCTORS KILL INCURABLES.

"Wouldn't it be a mercy to end his sufferings?" How often has this tense whisper passed round the group of distressed relatives at the bedside of a loved one as they watched with agony his grim struggle to rid himself of the shackles which" still bound him to the life he so ardently desired to relinquish. Would it be a mercy? The question is an old one, and has often been mooted in the past. But it has emerged again with all its tragic interest because of some remarks made by Mr. S. Ingleby Oddie, the London coroner. Mr. Oddie was conducting an inquest upon a man who had committed suicide by stabbing himself. The doctor, who had attended the man for heart trouble, said the deceased had remarked that it was a pity doctors had not the power to put incurables out of their misery. Mr. Oddie thereupon said he thought the time might come when, with proper safeguards, that might be done, for it seemed a good thing when life became unbearable. THE MEDICAL VIEW. With the object of getting the medical view on the subject, I submitted Mr. Oddie's remark to an eminent surgeon, says a correspondent of the "Glasgow Herald." For his own part, he said, he quite agreed with the coroner that in certain cases such a course might be quite justified. There were, however, difficulties in the way of granting doctors such power. The chief aim of the medical profession was to preserve life, not (to destroy it, and even if such permission were granted by the authorities he thought the doctors would accept it with great reluctance. The ending of a patient's life might in many cases be undoubtedly a work of mercy, but sometimes there were reasons for keeping a man alive as long as possible. He quoted an instance to illustrate this. While practising in a poor locality in his early professional days he was called, to attend an old Army pensioner who was nearing the end of his tether. According to all indications the man ought to have died the next day at latest, and so the doctors informed the relatives. They received the dismal tidings with the usual outward show of grief. But as the medical man was about to take his departure one relative frantically appealed to him to "keep him alive for two days longer." Somewhat surprised at the definite terms of the request, the doctor inquired the reason for the desired postponement of death. The man's pension, he was told, was due for payment on the day after that on which in the natural course he should have died. His death would cancel the payment of the pension, and the relatives would require to bear the burial expenses themselves. The doctor was amused at the novelty of the situation, but he set to work, and, by means knowt only to the profession, actually succeeded in keeping the man alive over the desirec period. A JUSTIFIABLE.CASE. As to cases in which the granting ot the right to kill would be received as » positive blessing even by the medica; profession, he quoted one which seemed to mc all-convincing. While engaged atone of the military hospitals during the ■war he had the misery of being in tht ■ward when an aged man came in to sec his son who had been brought over front France "wounded." The nurse conducted the trembling old man over to the bedside of his boy. The lad greeted hi* father -with a smile, and whispered. 3 word of welcome. "Shake hands, sonny," said the father t extending his toil-worn fist. But the lad made no effort to respond. The smilt' died from his face, and a look of misery took its place. The nurse, embarassed, looked the other way, and the doctor himself, knowing what was coming, got busy at another bed. The distressed father looked inquiringly towards the nurse. He saw she did not want to speak to him. In desperation he turned to the doctor and asked, in a tone of anguish: "Doctor, why is it my son won't shake hands with mc?" Then, said the doctor, he iad to be told that there was nothing -under that quilt but a legless, armless, but living trunk. That helpless thing, that could never be of any further use in this world, and -was only a burden to himself and. others, lived for some considerable time afterwards. But surely, if ever thers was a case in which the right of the doctor to kill would have been justified that was one. And there were many casualties of the war which, if not quite so ghastly, might almost be included in the. same category. SENTLMENTAL STUMBLING BLOCKS. Human nature, which was just term for sentiment, was, of course against the adoption of such an idea, but family affection was not always against the granting of such power to the medical profession. Indeed, in extreme cases, ! anguished relatives would often be glad jto see an end put to their dear ones' suffering, and, the doctor believed, all the sentimental stumbling blocks might be cleared away in course of time. Why he said, when our pet dog or cat meets with a mishap, which renders its recovery j more than doubtful, do we hesitate to | put it out of pain?" No, we either give it a dope or, better still, send it to the lethal chamber and then congratulate ourselves upon having done a good and merciful action. The medical profession in general, he thought, rather favoured Mr. Oddie'a idea and he would not be surprised if I n **» "°* far distant future, "the rieht to kill' , n incurable cases might, -with the safeguards suggested by the coroner be granted to the doctor. '