The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-09-08
Mans Right to Die.

p" HAT interesting Connecticut
jurist, Judge Simeon II.
Il Baldwin of New Haven,
who some time ago pro-
voked widespread discussion by n
ringing advocacy OF the whipping post,
has just created another sensation. At
Saratoga, as president of the Ameri-
can Social Science association, in his
annual address, he argued that doctors
and nurses should not needlessly pro-
long life when the patient is i'll with
an incurable disease. We quote his
exact words:
There are certain maladles that at
tack the human frame, which are noces-
sarily fatal, and others which naturally
end In a speedy death, but may be so
treated as to lead to a prOtracted state
of weakness and suffering Incompatible
with any enjoyment of life or useful ac-
tivity, and from which there can BE no
reasonable hope of ultimate recovery. In
unCivilized nations such diseases are Of
short duration. They are either left to
take their course without interference or
the patient is expedited on his journey
to the grave, In civilized nations, and
particularly of late years, it has become
fessiOn to prolong such lives at any cost
of discomfort or pain to the sufferer or
of suspense or exhaustion to his family.
ut is a great responsibility this, that
rests on modern medicine. It has power
to hold us back from the grave, for a few
days, few weeks, a few years, to which
the physician of antiquity was a strang
er. But are we sure that the course of
nature with mankind is really at fault?
q know " hp
enough of us, in this state of being?
Or to rise to a higher and truer level,
may not the God over all, who has or
dained these laws or bodily decay,
though Hc has also ordained these laws.
later discovered by us, Of scientific phys
iology, be safely left to name the time
FOR calling His children ONE? That lie
has given men some brief power to hold
them back is not Of itself and always a
warrant for its use. when under all rea
sonabe possibilities the result will be
only short pOstronement of the ineri-
table and barren of any intermediate op-
portunities for good"
An argument along moral lines was
elaborated by the speaker as follows:
"If that future life which we connect
with the name Of Heaven he one of aC-
tivity i'm endeavor, of energy of achieve
mcnt. of the strong helping the weak,
the wise instructing the simple are we
sure that the analogies of life here are
so far deserted that there is always work
for all. appropriate for each? Or may,
in a certain sense, time, that Is, the due
order of succession in events have its
reign i'm other worlds and positions of
usefulness in this planet or in that be
assigned to new ComerS, as vacancies
arise and only then? If so natural
death. coming in ordinary course. may he
the divine way of calling one up from a
condition Of existence to which he Is un-
fitted, or in which he is not needed, to
one in which he is needed, and needed al
once. To postpone il, to protract a life
in doing so by medical skill beyond ITS
seemingly appointed bound, may, looked
at in this light, risk the loss of fitter
place in a larger life-the loss of a God
given opportunity"
The field Of inquiry here entered is
one too delicate for rOugh-and-t tumble
newspaper discussion but Judge Bald
win is to be congratulated at least
upon his success in projecting a new
topic of subtle debate.