The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-09-13
KILLS In MERCY'S NAME
DOCTOR ADMINISTERS CHLOROFORM
TO END PATIENTS SUFFERING.
Says He Even CounscIs Suicide by
Drowning i'm Case Of Incurables-
Judge Baldwin Explains.

CHICAGO. Sept. 12.-The Tribune's Meri-
den Comm correspondent says: DIR. Nehe-
miah Nickerson said to-day that he had
practiced what Judge Simeon L. Baldwin,
of New Haven. breaches, by administering
chloroform to end the sufferings of patients
who were i'll beyond hope of recovery.
when a person is suffering from an in
durable disease" he said. land. diagnosis
by competent physicians results in the ver-
oict that there is no help for the patient,
there is no reason why the sufferer should
not be given chloroform if he requests such
action and be assisted to pass out.
1 have administered chloroform under such
conditions, and have always thought that
was doing humane act. Why a person
should be obliged to suffer by the aid of
medical skill is more than can see. Ac-
cording to my mind a person has a perfect
right TO say what shall be done with his
life. He may live or die. Suicide is justi-
fable in many cases. provided the suicide
has no obligations. have advised persons
to commit suicide, telling them TO drown
themselves rather than take acid but so
far as ] know no one has followed my adj
vice, not taking me seriously. l do not
believe doctor should hasten a patients
death without full consent of all near rela-
tives and the patient himself
The New Haven correspondent of the
Tribune says: Judge Simeon T. Baldwin
was asked this evening if he favored the
plan of DR.. Nickerson. who at a patients
request, put him to death, when the case
was clearly hopeless one. Judge Baldwin
said:
Every physician should judge of his own
cases. For my part I am loath to believe,
as some persons have claimed, that there
are no physicians who are not capable of
telling when a patient cannot possibly re-
cover. In my address j spoke only OF the
extreme cases, taking IL for granted that
there was no hope of recovery. l do not
care TO discuss particular cases like that of
DR.. NickerSon.
Judge Baldwin is president of both the
American Bar Association and of the Amer
lean Social Science Associa ton. The ad-
dress in which he commended that 1t is the
right OF man to die was delivered before
the latter body at Saratoga. n. Y. on Sept.
I. He said. in part: There are certain NAL
aides that attack the human frame, which
are. necessarily. fatal. and others which
naturally end in a speedy death, but may
state o of weakness and SUFFERING. ineompati
BILE with any enjoyment of life or useful
activity. and from which there can be no
unciviized nations such diseases are of
short duration. They are either left to take
their course without interference or the pa
tient is expedited on his journey to the
grave. In civilized nations. and particularly
OF late years. 1t has become the pride of
many in the medical profession to prolong
such lives at any cost of discomfort or pain
TO the sufferer, or of suspense or exhaustion
to his family. So long as death loomed up
before men as a sudden plunge into what
was likely to be a state of instant and ago.
nizing torture that would never end, they
might well sacrifice almost everything TO
postpone its coming. The physician who
would keep the breath in the body for an
other week, another hour, prolonged les
ser suffering TO escape greater one. But
now. from the present standpoint of
thought, is not this misapplication of the
healing art? Is IL not an unnatural contest
with kindly well an unconquerable
tate, or let us rather say a kindly law by
which God rules the universe and makes IL
a fit place for the habitation of those whom
he has made after his own spiritual image?"
Later, in justification of the sentiments
expressed at Saratoga he said in an inter-
view here: As the old man has right to
BABE that is born into the world with physi-
cal defects that but for surgical operation
would, In few hours or days. take il out
Of 1t. when this surgical operation can only
save the life by making it daily and hope
less misery. Nature has her unyaria bic
laws. By one of them maformation pre-
venting the due exercise of any vital func-
ton leads to death. The suffering will not
be long. Man can throw his skill in the way
of this law and interrupt its course. He
can reconstruct the body but is ii in such
a case worth the while? Is ii not rather a
sin against the helpless being who. for no
fault of his enters the world under condi-
tions that forbid his enjoyment of any
thing?"