Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1905-11-03

deed, by a strange kind of wounded
pride, and desire to prove that, how.
| ever despised, he is not, as source OF
terror, despicab!e. That, not jealousy.
is the secret of half the murders OF
lovers by lovers of which the records
OF inquests are 80 full.
The suicide cannot feel malignity
towards himself. He can gain moth
ing tangible by his own death. Pride
is not in him, and the fear is fear Of
condition, not of person other than
himself whose removal would smooth
his path. His own governing impulse
is flight, instant flight, final escape
from situation which he finds in
tolerable. 1t is not cowardly flight
from an enemy-the ancient world
was, we fancy, more just about that
than the modern one, which cries
Coward" after the suicide as the
most convenient way of expressing
disapproval-so much as flight before
the irresistible, before an earthquake
or tornado. The true reason why
that flight is wicked, to most people,
is we conceive, that its impulse is
mutiny, revolt against the will OF the
Most High. "That will is painful,
harsh, unbearable, therefore 1 will
not yield to it, but will escape finally
and at once"-that must be the gov
erning thought of the sane suicide
and that thought is altogether evil.
1t does not matter that it is also IRA
tional, for many irrational impulses
are evil-revenge. for example, is,
nine times out of ten, irrational as
we'll as bad. Nothing can justify-say
some people-rebellion against God,
and if the impulse of race would lose
its greatest source at once the de.
liberate suicide is not rebellion, what
is il?
And il suicide is morally indelensi-
BILE, what is the cause for authanasia,
except that the motive of fight, in.
tolerance of pain, and especially of
incurable pain, is one common to all
humanity, and in some so powerful
that although it may not wreck rea-
son, it overwhelms the resisting power,
the love OF life, without which the
human race would lose its greatest
source at once OF energy and OF safety?
The ultimate key to labor is love of
life, and on that much of the coher-
ence OF society depends. Why guard
with a thousand expensive precau-
tions that which is valueless? AS
we'll place police to protect mush-
rooms. We can see no special argu.
ment for authanasia, and regard the
extreme tolerance with which the
opinion for it is discussed as one of
the many illogical results OF the pity
for pain which has become such a
passion in our world.
AS to Miss Halls idea of relieving
pain to trainmen and passengers who
may be so badly injured in a wreck
that their lives could not possibly be
saved by administering anaesthetics,
let us see.
The world seldom makes mistakes
when its self-protection is concerned,
and to give such power to a whole
profession would distinctly lessen its
security. AS a rule, with few excep.
tions, doctors-and We assume that
Miss Hall in cases of suffering train.
men and passengers would have doc.
tors administer the concoction that
would end the sufferers pain, also
exissence-are good people, but there
are many of them, and some must be
bad. To give legal right to admin
lister poison on demand without 70.
sponsibility would be to arm every
profligate with a most dangerous
weapon.
Who is to tell, after death, whether
the patient has consented to his own
departure, or whether the last ray OF
hope had really disappeared? 1t would
be bad enough if such things were
suspected, as they would be by the
suspicious, but the suspicion might be
Justified once, and that once would
destroy a confidence which does much
to diminish in households the miser.
able impact of disease. Every patient
with wealth would ask himself if there
could be any one with an interest in
putting him away. Great leaders Of
parties would have special reason to
fear, and what the great apprehend
the little soon believe to be posi-.
bility, vide the whole history of the
Middle Ages, when all who were great
expected assassination, and all who
were little, if the great died inconven-
iently, howled out charges of poison.
1t is not we'll, for the sake of the
class itself, to trust the power of life
and death to any class which must OF
necessity exercise it in secret. 1t may
be said that the power is trusted now,
and so it Is, but with the usual guar.
antees. and this additional one, that
the rule of the profession is to pre-
serve life while they can. They have
a right when suffering threatens life
to risk life by the use of sedatives suf-
ficient to prevent that threat, and no
doubt occasionally the sedatives con-
stitute danger OF their own-it is so
in many cases of bad burns-but they
act under the restraint of professional