The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-09-11
WOMAN Bees
DEATH BY LAW
Pleads For an Act Of LeglsIa-
ture to Permit EuthanaSia.
She IS A HOPELESS INVALID.
r" 1tiNIC
In Constant Pain and Unable to Move
Hand or Foot-lnjured Animals Mer-
oifully Killed, She Says, While She
May Live For Twenty Years.

May Live For Twenty Years.
Mrs. Sarah Harris, thirty-three years
old, sufferer from paralysis for three
years, has dictated from her la,d In a
New York sanitarium an appeal for
an act Of the Legislature which would
make 1t possible for physicians to end
her sufferings by a merciful death.
! For three years Mrs. Harris has not
! been able to move hand or foot She
has control only over the muscles Of
her head. There Is no hope that she
will ever improve. Her condition is
caused by a spinal malady which keeps
her constantly in intense pain The
disease has spared her reason, but this
only makes life harder for her by add
ing mental suffering to physical.
Her husband is Louis Harris, u cloth
ing salesman. They have two children,
boy and girl.
The invalids parents removed to
New York several years ago from
Charleston, s. c., where Mrs. Harris
was born. She was educated in
Charleston, and after graduating from
a normal school began to teach school
there At her wish her parents re-
moved to New York, where eight years
ago she married Louis Harris.
Was Healthy and Active.
During the first five years of their
married life Mrs. Harris was an ac-
tive, healthy young woman, devoting
all her time to her household and to
the rearing Of her three children. The
affliction which deprived her of the
use Of her limbs came without warn
ing. Apparently in good health, she
was out walking with her children in
October, 1909, when she suffered the
first attack In few days she had
become a helpless invalid The exact
nature of her disease has not been dis
covered, though 1t Is known to be a
spinal trouble which cannot be cured
Mrs. Harris spent two years In the
Neurological institute under the care
of specialists who could do nothing
for her and finally admitted that there
was no Improvement. The last year
Mrs. Harris has spent in the sani-
tarium
Since she first learned that her case
was hopeless Mrs. Harris has prayed
for death. She has sought to enlist
her husbands relatives in an effort
to have n law passd allowing a pain
| less death to be administered In the
case Of hopeless invalids who request
ed such a release from pain. The
answer has always been an attempt
to cheer her up and to hold out hope.
Mrs. Harris Plea.
Mrs. Harris has now taken the first
step in movement for the passage of
an act by the legislature which will
make 1t lawful to terminate her life.
She dictated the following statement:
Can the busy throng stop long enough
from their various avocations in life to
consider most vital question from one
Of the greatest sufferers who inhabIts this
beautiful world?
Various mechanical inventions are being
pushed in which many shining lights lose
their lives, and yet one question, the
greatest Of all, how to end the suffering
OF hopeless helpless sufferers has never
been delved into.
Here, In her early thirties a young won1-
an stretched on bed, inmobile, bereft Of
the great motor engine OF her constitution
Tor the past three years. which places her
In an absolutely paralyzed condition In
which she i5 unable TO exert single mus
Gle OF hor 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, which
tongue cannot relate nor pen describe
Master minds Of medical scienca skilled
diagnosticians, and human skill have eX-
hausted their efforts In bringing about
some relief or cura
Now, why should not the state take the
matter In It's hands and end the wretched-
ness or such poor sufrerers7 Let us Just
stop long enough TO think that when a
brute tho lowliest of the animal kingdom
becomes inactive and doomed to suffer; its
suffering Is put to an end, and here q hu-
man being. the highest and noblest of Gre
ated beings, must linger and suffer on un-
I'll the vital organs give way, which may
be an indefinite number ofNyears What a
cTuel order Of the universe
Naturally ones own loved ones cannot
bring this about Your physician cannot
do II, for he would be condemned, so the
only means is the state.
Any ono who shall take up my case, as
II requires pioneer. as In everything,
would win an everlasting debt of graft
tude from one OF the greatest sufferers on
earth
Like a Tortured Captive.
To reporter Mrs. Harris compared
her case TO that OF a tortured captive
who was revived as often as he be-
came insensible from pain In order
that he would be In condition to suf-
fer keenly when more agonies were In
flicted.
''If an animal is mortally wounded
or helpless from disease" she said,
mature provides against long, drawn
out suffering. The animal dies quick
ly, and its pain is over. That is the
most merciful way, and men recognize
that for when horse or dog is hurt
or sick and there is no further hope
for 1t 1t is put out of its misery.
"But when the same is true of hu-
man being he is artificially kept alive
b.