American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-04-26
EutIlanasia.'

Is SUICIDE ever justifiable9 Until the
other day, no one doubted that to deprive
of life, whether ones own or that of an
other, was criminal. Yet two Englishmen
of distinguished learning and ability have
boldly come forward to declare euthanasia,
in some cases, duty. One of them, writ
ing in the erudite pages of the Fortnight
", posed the question with Il temerity
which naturally brought down upon his
devoted head IA hurricane of critical con-
tumely; for, looking at it from a prosaical-
ly materialistic and humanitarian point of
view, he declared that, where the self
sacrifice of life was necessary to the health
or safety of others, and especially in cases
where disease rendered il Il question of IA
brief period that the life to be sacrificed
would go out of itself, it was justice and
mercy that it should be cut off A man is
a hopeless invalid; diagnosis shows that
it is physically impossible that he should
recover; his malady is such as to affect
seriously the health of those who tend on
him and YEARLY watch for the end; he
suffers himself, and can only look forward
to ceaseless suffering, to agonies
and pains, to sleeplessness and
writhing, until the happy release
comes; he can look for no satisfaction, or
pleasure, or mental profit, from the pro
longation of such an existence. Why
should he drag it along SO wretchcdly to
the certain and not distant end? Why
subject a loving household not only to the
pain of Witnessing his miserable suffer
ings without being able so much as to
curtail them for a moment, but to disease
and ruined health themselves? The re
viewer argues that, in such an instance, ii
is IN absolute duty for the sick man to
submit to voluntary extinction. But Prof |
Francis Newman goes further, and insists |
that the principle of voluntary suicide, as |
a sanitary and human resort, may be cX- |
tended to broader limits. Imbued with |
The spirit of an age which more and more |
Graves to be fortified by scen- |
life cXaCtnesS, Professor Newman insists 7
IN reducing the whole thing to Il system.
He would have the Government establish
bureau of suicide; there should be Il reg
strar, with Il thorough education, and Il
ut salary, whose sole duty it should be to
wait on would-be suicides, and take
heir dispositions of voluntary consent to
he proposed auto-det6: he would appoint
corps of physicians to determine above
anvil whether the patient were beyond
rope of recovery, and that his continu-
nee in life was seriously nocuous tn
'thers; and he would thus legally estab
ish all the facts, and make the deed itself
natter of official record. Professor New
nan is inclined to extend the system of
destruction to the incurably in
anc, but seemingly tor"ets that the prin-
ipalf element of it, as Overwhelmingly
he free consent of the paticnt-could not
c obtained in the case of the insane |
IA novel light is thrown by the t
rofessor on the subject of suicide, but he
ill find many formidable difficulties in
ic way of the adoption of this theory t
'hich would fatally disturb society rs at {
resent constituted, besides running di- I
'cty counter To the prevailing state of |
sligious convictions as to the sacredness |
I life and death rs the sole prerogative of i
higher power than man.-1pplet0n's 5
0uJWdL I