Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1905-11-03
A VEXED QUESTION.
is IT EVER JUSTIFIED BY CIR
CUMSTANCES TO KiIL7

is 1T EVER JUSTIFIED BY CIR
CUMSTANCES TO KILL7
Miss Hall Startes the Philadelphia Humane
Society by Asserting That It Is-Is Suicide
Murder. Without the Motive OF Malice?-If
Euthanasia is JustifabIe. Who Can Be, and
Under What Circumstances, to Close the
Weary Eyelids in Peaceful Death7
The following Philadelphia dispatch
appeared in a recent issue of the Sc.
attle Post -Intelligencer:
Miss Ann S. Hall, of Cincinnati. star.
tied the Humane Society to-day by pro.
posing the adoption of a resolution
legalizing the administering of anaes-
thetics to persons dying in agony.
Miss Hall said there were times in
cases OF railway wrecks when trainmen
and passengers were 80 badly injured
that their lives could not possibly be
saved. In such cases Miss Hall thought
it ought to be permissible to administer
anaesthetics to relieve their sufferings.
She also favored administering anaes-
thetics when persons were dying from
incurable diseases from which they
suffered agony.
Miss Hall said she would not hesitate
to shoot a person who might be dying
in agony in a railroad wreck, but she
did not think laws should be passed
comforting upon any one the right to
determine when any person should die
by giving an anaesthetic.
| The rpsolutiop ryllaI ont
The resolution OF Miss Ann S. Hall,
as the foregoing shows was ruled out.
but the incident is very significant OF
the Twentieth century.
Opinion for many years past has
been softening or changing on the
subject of suicide, and especially Of
that form of the offense, suicide to
avoid incurable physical suffering,
which. in our secret sympathy with it,
We term euthanasia. The feeling OF
civilized mankind ha. always been
more or less divided on the subject,
many Christians holding suicide to be
only form OF murder, which it clearly
is not, murder implying maligni,y /;
many more thinking that if the fu.
ture life is certain, the right OF the
soul to exchange its lodging is at all
events maintainable, and the majority
holding that, while manifestly an
offense, the degree of the condemna-
ton it deserves must depend almost
wholly upon the attendant circum-
stances. The Curtius who leaps into
the gulf TO save his country, or even
his family, is rarely condemned. Even
this last opinion, charitable as it lie, is
ceasing to embody itself in law, and
we are not aware OF any State in the
Union in which attempt at suicide is
now treated by judge or jury as crime.
Even in Great Britain, where it was
once regarded with adherence, and
the corpse Of the suicide refused burial
in consecrated ground as something
too deeply tainted for the forgiveness
even Of Christ, the same relaxation Of
opinion is apparent, though it is
chiefly displayed in the illogical way
natural to people when reluctant to
condemn theory in which, neverthe.
less, they have ceased to believe.
Juries will not pronounce suicide
in any case, justifiable homicide, bu,
usually feign to believe that it is al.
ways the result OF temporary insanity,
and so, in fact, class it among the
results of disease and not among acts
which must necessarily be either ap.
proved or condemned. The verdict oi
felo de se-self. f.murder-is considered
too harsh, and is reserved almost OK.
clusively for the murderer who, to
avoid justice, has executed sentence
on himself.
Suicide still discredits a family, but
rather as presumptive evidence of q
mental lesion which may be heredi-
tary than for any other reason, while
as regards euthanasia sentiment is
even more lenient or more weak. A
feeling has sprung up that God cannot
have intended the useless torture oil
any human being. and that according
ly to make death easy when it would
be exquisitely painful must, at least
for the sufferer himself, be justifable.
Why, it is said, should he endure
agonies which can have only one end,
and can, so far as human eye discern,
be OF no profit, material or spiritual?
They may even diminish, and no
doubt occasionally do diminish, his
capacity OF faith in the mercy Of God.
The thesis is seldom maintained in
print, though Mrs. Oliphant, who was
a strong believer, openly defended il
in Carita" in cases OF cancer, bu,
| ~ ~ UclloSCu Wy euOuSuuoo WIZ uPOn
all other subjects agree with the
teachers of Christianity, and argued
over in almost every society intimate
enough to touch such questions at all
the conclusion usually being, "I hope
1 may never be tempted"
i We believe the present leniency ol
opinion upon the whole subject to be
an error based upon a very natural
recoil. The old judgment was toe
harsh. To confuse suicide with muir.
der-always excepting the suicide
which is intended to facilitate murder
by making retrlbution in this world
impossible-is to confuse all thinking
about crime. The moving impulses
the condition of mind, the conse
quences to the offender are all differ
ent. The murderer is usually actu
Iotol o;thor h,, ,,,ol;onity OP nv greed