THE RIGHT TO DIE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20501, 31 August 1928, Page 10

THE RIGHT TO DIE.

INCURABLE CANCER,

A DOCTOR’S DUTY

(Fbom Qtjs. Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 27. What should be the attitude of a doctor towards hopeless cases of cancer ? Should he prolong “ the act of dying " I This important question formed the substance of some observations by Sir Thomas Border before the section of Medicine and Diagnosis " at the Cancer Conference. “ In considering the treatment of cancer cathexia when the growth is Inoperable,” he said, “ it may be well first of all to decide what should be our attitude when faced with theee distressing cases. “ Surely it should be to prolong life by all the means in our power consistent with not adding to the patient’e discomforts Once we can get fid of the stigma attaching to the disease —and thig will disappear in sine discreditable for the practitioner to neglect the treatment of cancer cathexia as it is for him to neglect the treatment of the tabetic, the chronic nephritic, or the chronic tuberculous patient.

“It has been - <n life in 'hopeiess diseases is often ‘ prolonging the ait of dying. . ;ji ■ is so, humanity rightly dictate- that thcdoctor’s zeal is whollv mien .->( • : TH* -><■ to this no universal rule can be laid down. This problem can only be solved by the exercise of great discretion, and the reflection that the patient is the central figure on the stage. “ The patient’s life is his own and no one else's prerogative, least of all that of his most sensitive friends. These often pl-ad for the advent of death as a relief from their own participation in the struggle as much a s for his.”