THE RIGHT TO KILL

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 168, 12 April 1935, Page 13

THE RIGHT TO KILL

Dean Revives Old Problem Should society allow people who are suffering from an incurable disease .to be put painlessly to death? This question was again raised by Dr. Selwyn, Dean of Winchester, in a recent lecture in Winchester Cathedral, England. Quoting the case of a Leeds mother, whose answer to the charge of murder was that she did it in mercy, he said no one could question the sincerity of the defence. This reference was to the case of Mrs. Brownhill, sentenced to death at Leeds on December 1 for the murder by gassing of her imbecile son. Sentenced on a Saturday, she was reprieved on the Monday. “Of course,” Dr. Selwyn continued, “if euthanasia should be introduced in this country it.,would require, alteration of the law which forbids suicide and of the law of murder. What is the answer from a Christian point of view? Ought we to support a movement which claims to rest on such humanitarian grounds? “The doctor’s dilemma is sometimes brought into the question. Should he, in certain cases, administer an overdose of a drug which will bring life to an end sooner than it would usually end? .It seems to me to depend on whether the doctor aims at putting the patient out of his misery, or of alleviating the present pain with which he is called upon to deal even at the risk of life. “I think no kind of Christian principle would be violated if the doctor thought he would alleviate that person's pain, even though some risk of life were involved. Is it not what every doctor does in an important operation?’