Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-09-12
RESPECT THE RIGHT TO DIE.
Judge Baldwin's Argument In Favor
OF Natures Law.
CNeSy York WOrld

(NeW YORK NOrld)
NEW HAVEN CONN, September 10
Judge Simeon f. Baldwin. of the Yale
Law school and Supreme Bench of the
state of Connecticut has returned from
Saratoga. where ne delivered the re-
markable address opposing prolonging
life i'm the case of the MORALLY i'll, pub
lshed exclusively i'm the World Tuesday.
Judge Baldwin tonight made additional
statements relative 10 his belief in the
natural right 90 die. Judge Baldwin said;
There is a form of unnatural death
which we approach from the opposite d.
rectiou. IL is living too long. II Is the
work of science. the achievement or the
highest medical art In that strange
book of materialistic and eDicurean phi
losouhy which has found its way into the
e-Ecciesiastes-the preacher tells us
that 10 everything there Is q season-a
time 10 De born and q time TO die
perhaps the history of American
Presidents would furnish as sad memo
rics of the effects Of science misap-
piled as can be found in the world. In
fact throughout the civilized world the
higher the station the greater the means
Of the sufferer by mortal malay the
less can he hope for a natural death.
Every man is set on earth as a soldier
is SET at his post and barred from de-
sorting his station until he is relieved
bv the authority that assigned him TO H.
Suicide is inadmissble. But the man
struck by fatal Illness is called on
from the post
IL speak of the hopeless case-of the
victim of Il cancer which has eaten lls
way 10 the verge of some vital organ, oil
the sufferer from consumption, OF the o4u
man whose years have run their course
Particularly is this the case with the OLD
d h.. CrffN
lions Of an interior lesion seldom lndl-
cate that more than one organ Is AFFECT
ed. and are often hardly noticeable at all
The patient does not know that he Is
paticnt and there is no occasion that ne
should know The weakest part OF MS
pbvsical mechanism has broken down.
WHY patch ii up. Another Is hardly less
weak and must soon succumb .
"Better for him and for his friends that
his last DAVIS should be unclOuded by the
apprebension of coming death, and the
change come 10 him quietly, as a cream
I'm sleep. AS the old man has right 70
a natural death. so has the unfortunate
babe that is born with physical deiects
that but for a surgical operation Woulu
i'm "a few hours or days take il out OF the
world when this surgical operation can
only save the life by making 1t dahy
and hopeless misery.
"If anv physician is here he knows
what / mean. He has perhaps himself
nut the case frankly before the unhappy
parenrs and yielded TO their desire TO
save their child from death at any cost
Bio has watched the sickly infancy, the
feehle childhood. the solitary youth. the
lone wears beyond Of daily discomfort
eelf-obborrence. and separation from the
world Nature has her inyariaDle laws
~, one of them malformation, preventing
tho due exercise of any vital luncuch,
loads 10 death. The suffering VIII not
bo long. Man can throw his skin in the
way of this law and interrupt its course
He can reconstruct the body, but Is II III
such "a case worth the while?
Suppose the case of the newborn
babe who. as often happens, is seized
with some acute and normally fatal us
ease Of the lungs. Life can be prolonged
and possibly the malady expelled by re-
sor, no the inhalation Of oxygen. The phy-
eician prescribes the remedy. An outlay
of $1,000 may be involved. The struggle
between life and death goes, as from the
first il was probable II would co. against
tbo child. WAS the possibility n a ar
ferent result worth the long-drawn agony
which the little sufferer underwent or
,,bicb The older sufferers underwent
"Iyas il. TO descend from the realm OF
feeling 10 the level of social economic,
worth the sacrifice by the young parent
. half a years income, perhaps