The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-02-25
ON KILLING THE HELPLESS.

HE SUGGESTION made by DR.. E.
s. Wright before the Salt Lake
County Medical association, that the
world should sanction executions by
physicians of persons who are incur
ably diseased, is not new one, but
a discussion of the question is always
interesting. The case that drew out
DR.. Wright's remark was d type of
its kind. The patient was woman of
advanced years afflicted with growth
similar to goitre.
If it is not checked prompt1y-and
there is no sure way of bringing this
ebout-she will die a gradual. horrible
death by suffOcatfOn. The woman can
extract no enjoyment from life: every
breath involves suffering. every motion
eXcruciating pain. She herself would
gladly welcome release. such release
as fatal dose of morphine would give
her. Should the physician be permit
ted to act as her kindly executioner2
; True. there is one chance in a hun
: dred thousand, perhaps, that an
operation might relieve her. The IN
certainty, though, is so great as to
amount almost to certainty that she
could not recover. She has lived now
longer than the allotted span she is
ready. aye, anxious, for death. 1t is
not cruel to permit her to live on and
on in agony? We consider the police
officer a humane man when ne ends
the sufferings of a crippled, sick or
helpless beast. Should human beings be
treated less humanely?
And there the affirmative argument,
If it can be called argument, must end.
No man can look into the future for
one moment. No physician can say
with absolute certainty, This man or
this woman. this boy or this girl, will
surely die" True. physicians do pro-
nounce the sentence of death in many,
many cases. and, in the very large ma
jority of such cases the physician
speaks truly. But sometimes he is
mistaken.
Do not all of US know Instances
where. after all hope had been aban-
doned, the patient recovered Have we
not seen doctors, nurses friends, leave
the bedside to prepare for funeral
that most Of them will not live long
enough to attend? Does not the re-
jected applicant for life insurance
frequently outlive the doctor who pro-
nounced his doom? Therefore, no man
can say and know, There is no
hope"
They think so and they are will
ing, or they think they are willing,
TO end the sufferers agony, but when
the moment for the action arrives, the
supreme moment, most of them would
falter. Once. in a southern state
physician was called to attend and
treat the injuries of a man who had
been crushed in a mine. The unfortu-
mates suffering was so great as to
make the blood run cold with horror.
1t was apparent that he could not re-
cover. He knew If. and he begged the
physician to administer a drug that
would insure him easy exit from life
The doctor. moved beyond the power
of words to express. consented. The
patient died as peacefully as tired
child falls asleep. That physician never
knew another happy hour. He died
two years later. esteemed and respected
by all who knew him, as well as by
the few who know of this incident
in his life: he died before his time, a
broken. remorsefuI man, for he could
not drive from his mind the thought,
The man might have lived; he might
have lived
Surely the good God who gave life,
who permits his children to suffer for
his own good purpose. knows best
when TO take it,