The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1912-12-11
She Wants TO DIE
PLEADS FOR Law TO PERMIT Her
TO end Her DAYS
A HOPELESS PARALyTIC
A New York Woman Who is Helpless
Desires That q Law Be Enacted
Which Would Permit Her to had
Her Life Because of Hsr Intense
Suffering.

Suffering.
Mrs. Sarah Harris, the remarkable
paralytic patient in the Audubon san
itarium Of New York who made two
public appeals during the last thres
months for the enactment Of q law
permitting her physicians to end her
suffering by taking her life, wrote a
third letter recently.
In it she tells Of q visit from Mrs.
Grover Cleveland, who, being as the
hospital to see an invalid relative,
and knowing Of Mrs Harris case,
spent an hour with eae latter.
'tMrs. Cleveland is the most re.
markable and unaffected woman with
whom I ever spoken" said Mrs. Aar-
ris. "she will bring to my help the
counsels Of wise people. I am as
much In need Of relief as when I
made the first appeal. The law does
not scruple to demand life for life.
Why may not the law become an
Instrument Of mercy as well as ven
geance?"
Mrs. Harris made a grim appeal to
the people Of New York last Septem1
Der to have a law enacted which Will
enable practicing physician to end
her life and her prolonged misery.
Three years ago Mrs. Harris was
stricken with paralysis and since chat
time has been able to to move Only
the muscles Of her head. She IS about
thirty years OF age, and Is the moth
er Of two children. Her husband is
g salesman. Mrs. Harris suffers coz
stantly and has yet to find any medi-
cine that will get relief. Physicians
have told her that she is the vtctom
Of spinal trouble, which has resulted
in paralysis, although they have been
unable to ascertain the exact nature
Of the maIady. She believes the leg
islature should make it possible for
doctors to end her life and the lives
Of all such w.etched sufferers. Mrs..
Harris was hrst stricken early in
1909, while cut walking, and the next
day was completely paralyzed.
The physicians at the Audubon
hospital state that no change has
been discernihle in. the woman's con-
dition for the past year or more, and
that she may live ten or fifteen years
more.
"I am suffering the torture Of the
damned" wrote this woman, when
she made her first appeal to the pub
lie several years ago. There In no
hope for my recovery. Why should
I continue until the end Genes in the
lingering death which know Is
mine?
"Various mechanical inventions
are being pushed in which many sAtns
ing tights lose their lives, and Jet
one question, the greatest Of all,
how to end the suffering OF hopeless,
helpless sufferers has never beea
delVed into.
Here in the early thirtiee, a young
woman, stretched on a bed, immoy-
able, bereft OF the great motor engine
of her constitution for the past three
years, which places her in an abso-
lutely parelyzed condition in which
she Is unable to exert single muscle
Of her body, besides suffering much
pain, yet in full possession Of the
strength Of her mentality, Graves and
yearns for that which would end her
misery.
"Now, VII! should not the State
take the matter in its hands and end
the vretchedness Of such poor suf-
ferers? Let US just stop long enough
to think that when brute, the low
lest of the animal kingdom, becomes
inactive and doomed to suGer, It's
suffering is put to an end.
Naturally, ones own loved ones
cannot bring this about. Your phys
ician cannot do it, for he would be
condemned, 80 the only means ID tho
State"