RIGHT TO DIE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22832, 17 March 1936, Page 10

RIGHT TO DIE

CORONER’S STRONG CRITICISM

To claim the right to take one’s own life, or obtain “ easy death,” even in the case of a person suffering from an incurable disease, was condemned by the Manchester coroner, Mr R. Stuart Rodger, when lie held two inquests in which there were suspicions of suicide. The coroner stated lie was appalled to see the report of an inquest on a suicide to whom, apparently, “it was suggested by a northern cleric that an act of self-destruction could be condoned with a clear mind if an incurable disease were alleged.” “ It is even more disconcerting,” the coroner proceeded, “to see other modern religions leaders supporting this ultra-pagan philosophy, which is the antithesis of New Testament teaching. Is the commandment to do no murder abrogated if applied to oneself? Pain in itself is no excuse, as modern drugs can alleviate it.' “In latter years there has ncen a marked increase in these tragedies, both in this and other countries, and an easy philosophy, such as advocated, will, I fear, tend to further increase them, to the sorrow of all concerned. “Did any of the innumerable army of martyrs take their own lives, though, perhaps, kept for weeks in slow torture with a certainty of death?” asked the coroner. The inquest to which the coroner referred was on William Henry Osborne, aged 70, a retired Admiralty overseer, who wrote to the Plymouth coroner claiming “ the absolute right to die.” Enclosed with the letter was a cutting containing a statement by Canon Peter Green, rector of St. Philip’s, Salford, that if he were suffering from an incurable disease he “ would take a painless, poison in a cup of tea and die with a clear mind.”