Case for Euthanasia

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 109, 11 May 1939, Page 13

Case for Euthanasia

NOTED PHYSICIANS STORY LONDON, May 1. The noted physician Sir James Purves-Stewart, when defending voluntary euthanasia for the incurable, told of an experience with a patient who asked him to end her life, lie said he was called to the bed-side of an intimate friend—a woman dying of cancer —who pleaded: “You are a true friend. Give me something to make me sleep, so that I shall not wake.” Sir James replied: '’‘My very dear

friend! You know how devoted lam to you and to those who love you. 1 cannot promise anything, but good-bye and God bless you.’' In telling the story at the annual meeting of the Voluntary Euthanasia Legislation Society, Sir James added that he could not reveal the action he had taken, but next day the sufferer “did not awaken.” “Had I been charged with killing I might, under the existing law, have been convicted,” he said. “But my conscience and my fellow-citizens would have acquitted me. I am sure that many doctors would willingly take a similar risk, which should be removed.” Bir James said he had no objection to the publication of the facts, and was quite prepared to take the risks involved. Sir Arnold Wilson, M.P., said the silence of the bishops on euthanasia contrasted strangely with their readiness to dogmatise on other issues. “The same archbishop who is declaring that we must die for international law and order, insists that wo must not die voluntarily,” he said.