RIGHT TO DIE.

Northern Advocate, 26 October 1935, Page 9

RIGHT TO DIE.

HOPELESS SUFFERERS MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN FORMATION OF SOCIETY PROMINENT MEN TAKE LEAD. (Received noon.) LONDON,. October 24. Several medical men, barristers, churchmen and politicians, headed by Lord Moynihan, formerly president of the Royal College of Surgeons, have launched a public society the aim of which is to legalise the right to die. The leaders include Sir Humphrey Rolleston, Physician-Extraor-dinary to the King, Lord and Lady Denman, Sir Arbuthnot Lane, Mr Julian Huxley, biologist. Dr. J. H. Laski, Professor of Political Science, and Dr, J. Creed, Professor of Divinity. The society is named the Voluntary Euthanasia (Easy Death) Legalisation Society. It contends that individuals who have attained years of discretion, and .are suffering from disease which usually entails a slow and painful death, should be allowed, if they comply with requisite conditions, to substitute a quick and painless death. The campaign aims at securing public support for an early Bill before Parliament. *

This Bill, as prepared, provides for the appointment of a referee, who would consider a written application from a sufferer, who would nave to declare that he had consulted his nearest relatives and secured his doctor’s undertaking to administer death. Seven days would have to elapse after the referee had consented, thus affording time for the patient to change his mind or the nearest relative to appeal.