ALLOWED TO DIE.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14544, 24 October 1917, Page 2

ALLOWED TO DIE.

AMERICAN DOCTOR ON DEI<X)RMED BABIES.

The ono-day-old daughter oi: Mr and Mrs William Meter, of North Cicero Avenue, Chicago, died at the GermanAmerican Hospital, whei'e Dr Harry J. Haiselden refused to perform an operation which he acknowledged would probably have saved the child's life.

This doctor declared that the infant, had it lived, would have ■been an imbecile, and that its parents and humanity would i be better served by its death than by! prolonging its life. The baby had noj upper skull ''cap," and There were] other deformities which seemed to assure it- life-long misery. "The attending physician consulted me," said Dr Haiselden, "and after examination agreed with mo that the I kindest thing wo could do would be to permit the child to die. Mere than! forty other physicians and surgeons j looked at the baby during the night, and many of them signed a paper expressing approval of my decision against operating to save the child." ' The New York correspondent of the; "London Daily Express" says: —Dr' Haiselden two years ago made a, national issue of a doctor's right to determine questions of life' J>nd death for patients when he decided to let the Bollinger baby die rather than perform! an operation that would have preserved it for a life of idiocy. "1 shall be criticised," says Dr Hai-' selden, "but I shall have friends, too. Some day people will wonder how there could be any criticism. The Meter baby," he continued, "was brought to j me a few hours after it waa born. Its father is a mechanic, less than twentyono years of age, and its mother is twenty. Its grandmother—who, by the way, became a mother only a few days ago —is the mother of twelve children, only one of which is dead. "When I saw the baby I knew it had already lived too long. The brain was extremely small, r.iui there Mas no normal skull formation. The head rested j on the shoulders, and there was prac-' tically no neck. The ears wore deformed, and there vrevo cither .striking defects.

"The case was absolutely hopeless. The life ■couhl !;ave been 'saved—but. what a life it would have been! The child -would have- grown into a helpless idiot, perhaps just able to eat. It .would have been a burde^vto its parents and the Stut;;.''

Iho money markot is tight, and tV.is condition will, it is stated by financial authorities, continue for some time to come (states the "Now Zealand Herald.")- Owing to heavy demands hi connection -with tho recent War Loan, and the financing of produce whicii is detained in the Dominion because of shipping facilities, tho hanks are conserving their finances for these purposes, and also for legitimate business requirements. Advances tire not being made by tho banks for the purchase of land, tho erection of buildings, for investment, or for speculation. Some of the principal lending institutions outside the banks are now charging 6£ per cent, for loans on first mortgages, an advance of i per cent on the recent rate. It is very evident that the present tightness of money will continue, owing to the demands tho Government must n.ake in connection with further war loans. This being 5.0, there is every necessity for the exercise of caution and economy.