The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1906-02-22

of the law proposed in Ohio which pro-
vides that person of sound mind, who
is sick unto death and who is suffering
unbearable agony can ask physician to
end his life. Before carrying out this
provision the physician must consult
three other physicians.-Ex
Sick unto death Well, who is to de-
eide when person is sick unto death?
Could the attending physician opinion
always be accepted AS final, conclusive,
oracular, and infallible2 Certainly not
"But" some one may say, the proposed
law provides that the attending ply
sician must consult three other physl-
clans" Well, would such counsel, or
consultation, necessarily afford protec-
ton to "a sick person whose mentality
had become unbalanced? No. Andls d
person that is really sick not always more
or less mentally deranged? Yes. Is a
person who is, or imagines that he ls
sick unto death always capable OF giving
his physician sound advice touching his
own case? No. Again, is every physl-
clans prognosis to be implicitly accept
ed rs being infallibly correct and reli-
able? No Can the most highly skilled
dagnostician always arrive at salts
factory diagnosis in complicated ana
obscure cases. No. IL the testimony
given by one distinguished medical ex-
pert always in harmony with that gwen
by another equally great medical au-
thorityy Well, no one will claim that
it is. On the contrary, it is matter of
common knowledge that experts often
differ widely in their Interpretation Of
symptoms of deep. seated, insidious phyal-
cal maladies; that what value testimony
given by alienists and other medical ex-
perts, at trials in law courts, might be
supposed to possess is often rendered
nugatOry by "a multiplicity of IFS In
PRODUCING conditional adverbial clauses
qualifying the conclusions arrived ut and
expressed and that neither the ascertain
ing of the symptoms, location, extent
and nature of disease, which il the
science of medical diagnosis, nor the
foretelling of its termination, which is
prognosis, has, as yet, advanced to such
stage of perfection that it may justly
be denominated an exact science.
We do not wish to have the position
we here take misinterpreted, We are
not at all disposed to point out defcien.
cies and impertections in the knowledge
and skill of the members of great
fraternity whose profession we consider
second to none in learning, skill, and
true usefulness to humanity. But we
do not believe that any man who will
say-as a sometime neighbor Of ours did
say-that in Chicago they can cut u
man into pieces and then fix him up
again so he is sound and hale, has an
adequate appreciation of the beneficent
work of good physician and surgeon.
But a person that fully realizes the ex-
tent If the progress that has been made
in the science and art of healing during
the course of the nineteenth century; Il
person that does not lose sight of the
bearing that such progress has on the
advancement of civilization; u person
that realizes that the profoundest re-
searches of psychologists and biologists
have not fully analysed and explained
the phenomenon Of even unconscious life
in the simplest unicellular organism, to
say nothing Of the mysteries connected
with the existence, evolution, mante-
nance and manifestations Of vital force
in higher life forms; Il person that knows
that the ultimate principle Of vegetative
life is underlined aud, perhaps, indeiin-
able and that conscious life and the in
Independence between body and mind
present problems that no mere man can
ever hope to solve completely during his
sojourn on this mundanesphere, a person
that realizes all these things is in a posi-.
ton toappreciate adequately the achieve
ments Of the medical profession and, at
the same time, 10 realize the physicians
limitations, realize that no physician
could invariably, and unerringly, fore
tell how any disease from which a pa
tient Of his might be suffering would
terminate. Nor could patient, during
his paroxysms Of bodily agony or mental
anguish, be depended upon to exercise
good judgment and wisdom when re.
questing his physician TO terminate his
tthe patients sufferings A patient ex
pressing such desire when writhing in
agony would, IN all probability, an hour
or two later, if still alive, be shocked at
the enormity and wickedness Of that
which ne had requested his physician to
do.
What shall it profit patient racked
with pain caused by an apparently in.
durable disease, or by seemingly fatal
injury, to jeopardize his own soul and
that Of biz physician for the mere reason
that he desires to be relieved from his
temporary sufferings? in "A case where
the patients mind had become tempora.
rily unbalanced it would ofcCurse not be
criminal on his part to make such request
as that above referred to; but il would
be morally criminal, on the part Of the
person requested, to act on, or to comply
Il