CONCERNING EUTHANASIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIX, 31 January 1936, Page 7

CONCERNING EUTHANASIA

Thfi vote cast at a- meeting in London of the Voluntary Euthanasia Legislation Society on the proposed bill legalising Euthanasia —65 in favour and 25 against—represents not unfairly the balance of argument on the subject, remarks the “Spectator” It is obvious that there are objections to permitting a patient to decree his own death, even .with all the safeguards that the proposed measure provides. ,As one speakey put it, for example, a patient when suffering severe pain may be unable to exercise calm judgment on the issues involved. Medical history, moreover, is full of examples of complete, or partial recovery of patients pronounced incurable. ' At. the same time cases do unquestionably exist when a patient is lingering in 'unalleviated agony, with faculties dimmed by pain, the short remainder of life a dragging torture, and with no conceivable hope of relief except by, early death. In such casps there is both wisdom and mercy in allowing the patient to decide that death shall come a little sooner than if nature were left to do its will unaided.