The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1891-10-29
ETHICS OF SUICIDE

The New York Commercial AdVer
tiser, commenting on a recent sulciu'
in that city, talks learnedly apou'
"the ethics of self-destruction." Inc
suicide was o consumptive, and tne
paper in question summarizes Ohe
reasons such q man might have loi
taking his own life; such as the ing
erino and painful death that else lies
before him, the fact that his lie
work is over, and the added TACT
that his life is tax upon those nc
loves and those who love him. Inc
Commercial Advertiser says:
..r;roe was when considerations
such as these would not nave peeIi
held to be Qualifications OF sell destr t,' =,
tion. Nor are they so held now by Cne
mass of the community. But it IS very
certain that of late years q widespread
funacknowledge change mas come
over public opinion in regard 10 SUI SUI
eide. While there is pretty general
consensus of opinion that to take one S
own life, is, in the great majority OF
eases, an act of base cowardice there
is an almost equally general consensus
that there are circumstances thaI can
at least be pleaded in mitigation Oh
the Indictment on such an act.
And while there are many people
who would maintain that q man IN
the last stages Of fatal disease ouSnu
to bear up with Spartan fortltude 10
tbe end, there are in these liberal days
of ours very few who would severely
condemn man who felt himself JUS
tilted in ending in moment, WIN
nistol. a life that disease would enc
only after weeks and months OF fruit
less and incessant suffering.
There could scarcely be a better eX'
annie of the cold hearted fatalism
which is the inevitable end of mate
rialism. The arguments all start from
false premises, and must necessarily
reach false conclusions.
In country which sometimes pun
ishes murder with death, it is strange
thata respectable paper should even
indirectly lend it's countenance to self
murder. If any man has right tc
take life at all, as well take anothers
as his own. If it is right to take his
own life, and thus put an end tt
the ravages of disease or the in
roads of pain, then the world
should have nothing to say if he
sends a bullet through the brain o
his invalid wife or draws q razor
across the throat of his suffering child
The truth is that murder is nothing
but murder, and even sophistry cal
make nothing else out of it.
Far from self-murder being justifia
BILE under these or any other circum
stances, the fact remains that it i
only through suffering we learn how
much good there is in the world. L
all men were equally strong an(
equally fortunate the better and true
attributes of the human heart WoulC
never be known. Any mother may
be proud of her children when they
are fair, and rosy and well-formed; bu
the strength and tenderness of divine
mother-love are never seen until some
mother holds in her arms q weak ano
delicate child, whose glowing
eyes and hollow cheeks tel
that it is fading away. Never
does the wife's true devotion burn
with so steady and so pure light as
when she sits by the bedside OF her
suffering husband, cheering and sus-
tanning him in his hour of pain. 1t is
amid such scenes as this that the
sweetest constancy and the dlvlnest
love were born. Away with this bru-
tai talk of suicide! They who pa
tiently wait from day to day, even
with sure and painful death before
them, will find the stone rolled away
from the door of the sepulchre at last,
and angels of Hope and Faith waiting
within.