Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-10-21
SOME REASONS FOR A NEW DE.
PARTURB.
No L

NbW lOIh independent u lIhNthlN NTllttut L
believe, by a clergyman, entitled, "How to
kill our relations" containing very likely,
the authors sentiments covertly expressed in
relation TO the question, whether it is ever
justifable in a moral sense to destroy human
life to end human suffering If the author
intended to conceal his views under the garb
of travesty, he succeeded very well, for the
article drew out but single reply. In this
the writer professed to believe that the author
wrote in candor, and he was stricken with
horror that q man in the nineteenth century,
outof barbarsm and an insane asylum, should
advocate doctrine so inhuman and repulsive
as the murder of his "poor relations" or
"aged, invalid ones" whose lives had been
prolonged beyond their usefulness, or those
afflicted with incurable diseases in order to
terminate their misery. Mr.. Bowen dropped
a few words simultaneously, but did not pro-
fess to discoveranything beneath the rubbish,
and here the discussion ended
Passing overthe 'poor relations" and 'nva-
Ids" who have the same right in law and
ethics TO liberty and life as their more fortu-
nate friends, where lies the wrong or inhu-
manity of permitting and aiding a suffering
human being TO terminate his misery and
life together if it is his desire, and no hope Of
recovery exists Involved in the main ques-
tion is a subordinate one that may aid us in
arriving at the solution. What is the object
of pursuit? or, what is it that makes life de-
sirable2 The answers will be as various as
the tastes of men are different. The miser
may say it is wealth, the scholar, that it is
science, and the sensualist that it is the graf
ifcation of the appetites; yet there is gen.
eral agreement that these objects are sought
as the means to reach the common end, hap
piness, which includes freedom from physi-
cal suffering. Hence, when the conditions
that render life happy are absent, when we
are tortured with pain of body and mind, we
often look upon life as no longer desirable,
and long to meet the final change and lie
down to rest. And hence, thousands who
had not lost the physical power to do SO, and
could escape from custody, have become sui
cides rather than to suffer indefinitely with
every hope extinguished. Many of these
cases arise from a morbid condition of the
mind the cause is either unreal or slight,
and might be removed If the sufferer would
look upon the sunny, instead of the shady
side of life. Others are real sufferers without
the possibility of improvement the visions
of distress through their remaining years
arise from no abnormal mental condition,
but are the convictions OF a sound mind ca
pable of calmly and correctly surveying the sit
uation. Thousands have implored their friends
or physician to administer an anmsthetic,
and thus terminate life that possessed none
of the conditions of happiness, but, instead,
had become an intolerable burden. Instead
of the humane act forbidden by law, the usual
practice is to pursue such treatment as will
prolong life, and add few more weeks or
months to the patients suffering. Is man of
less consequence than the brute that he
should be compelled to suffer as long as the
vital spark can be kept alive q? Our dumb
animals are compassionately taken out of
their misery when it has become certain that
restoration is impossible. The agonies of
human being, it would seem, should excite
an equal degree of sympathy with the agonies
of the brute, and hence leave no desire on
the part of friends to prolong life destitute
of all the conditions of happiness
Not long ago young man with abscess of
the liver appeared to be approaching his end,
medicines having failed to bring relief. His
physicians decided that his only chance of
recovery lay in a surgical operation. 1t was
partially performed, the patient dying in the
midst of it. A few well-meaning friends CEN
sured the physicians, saying that but for the
operation the young man might have lived
fa, Ao,-s n,,N
it be to friends to lengthen the life of suf-
ferer "a few days longer" if it is certain he
cannot recover? Such desire arises from q
morbid sensibility, not from well-cultiVAted,
sincere love for the best good of the individ-
ual.
1t is well known that man is subject TO a
few incurable diseases, lingering and painful,
like cancer well advanced; that he is some
times the victim of accident of so serious a
nature as to exclude hope of recovery alto
gether. In such cases, if the patient says life
has lost its charms through intolerable pain,
and that he desires to pass away, a council of
physicians might be held, and if unanimous
that restoration to health is impossible, it
would be merciful to give the sufferer the
boon he Graves and permit him to go to his
rest A few such cases have occurred in this
county within few years, and one quite re-
Gently. But this last request was denied
them, and they were forced to submit to the
natural executioner, dilAtory and terrible, that
sometimes appears to delight in nothing so
much as the anguish and bitter tears of his
victims.
There is at present morbid public senti-
ment in the way of "taking of" human be-
ing except for crime, paralleled by nothing
but homicide through malice prepense. A
stronger objection can be raised against cap
ital punishment than against terminating by
an@sthesia the life of a hopeless sufferer with
his consent This morbid sentiment will dis
appear under the ordeal of discussion that
must precede every reform, and every de-
parture of importance from the old tradition
al practice. The ''new departure" now delay
ed will finally be accepted, because 1t is phil
anthropic and just, being in harmony with
better humanity, and desired by all in GER
tain imaginable cases as personal favor.
Our great error lies in the mistaken no.
tion that life, regardless of conditions, is
the paramount good, when, as we have seen,
it must be accompanied with pleasurable
emotions-at least be destitute of positive
suffering-in' order to be desirable Who is
better capable of deciding the question than
each individual for himself, if of sound mind,
whether he will live on in torture, deprived
of all the conditions that make life desirable,
with hope extinguished and despair confirm
ed, or anticipate, with the consent of the
proper tribunal, the natural summons.
Suicide, always to be condemned, has be-
come alarmingly prevalent from some cause
not well understood, and is increasing.
Though it has been defended by writers of
celebrity, and adopted by such illustrious
persons as Demosthenes, Themistocles, Mark
An -. -