Evening star., 1935-11-08
DOCTORS FROWN
ONMERCY DEATHS
Profession Generally Op-
poses Principle, Although
1t Recognizes Problem.

The American medical profession
generally opposes the principle OF
''mercy deaths,'' although there is
school of thought which holds there
are cases where the humanitarian
aspect weighs powerfully against legal
or ethical argument.
The question, an old one, has been
brought up once more as the result
of an interview in the London Daily
Mail in which an unidentified English
doctor, who is drawing wide support,
says in five instances he has taken
lives where mental blight or "incur-
able" disease doomed the patient to
lay suffering.
From DR.. William Gerry Morgan,
eminent Washington physician and
former president of the American
Medical Society, today came we'll
considered statement of opposition.
characterizing the right to die"
theory as "unsound."
Especially is this so because physi-
clans have the means at hand OF re-
lieving of their distressing symptoms
individuals suffering from mcurable
disease, without actually taking life.
Courageous at Death.
"It may be argued that we cannot
remove from such individuals the
horror of death. However, I have
learned from long experience that in
the vast majority of cases, through
the grace of God, courage is given to
human beings to face with equanlmity
the approach of death"
An interesting contrast appears In
the view of DR.. Prentis Wilson, an
other leader in the medical world here,
expounded last year before the Medi-
cal Society of the District of Column
bia. in his presidential address.
Why" he asked, should the phy-
sician, who bravely accepts the horrid
but legal task of destroying the unborn
child that the mother may live, be
forced to stand impotently by and
watch the agony of parents with an in
nocent. helpless babe condemned by
Congenital defect or birth trauma, to
a life in which idiocy must be prayed
for, since it blinds insight; or. not
only to withhold the hand of mercy
from the suffered in the terminal
stages of cancer, in that aWeSome
room wherein cries for pity mingle
with the stencil of putrefying flesh,
but to employ every resource of science
to prolong the torture, on some such
fallacious and specious pleas as while
there is life there is hope or the func-
ton of the doctor is only to save and
prolong life'?"
Hope Is Tradition.
However, the traditional belief that
"where there is life, there is hope" was
said by DR.. Herbert r. Ramsey. chair
man of the Medical Society's Commit
tee on Public Information, to be held
by the majority.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press re-
ported that the matter was attracting
wide interest in England, and that Lord
Moynihan, one of the country's most
distinguished surgeons, had disclosed
a campaign to give incurables "the
right to die"
Lord Moynihan announced the group
to which he and other influential
members of the medical profession and
clergymen belong has called meeting
December 10 at headquarters of the
British Medical Association to propose
'1aying the whole proposition before
the country He plans to present
bill providing for death in certain cir
cumstances to the next Parliament
Notables Support View.
Associated with Lord Moynihan are
Prof. Julian Huxley, the Earl of
Listowel, and Lord Denman, former
Governor General of Australia.
In a survey Of medical opinion over
the country, the Associated Press also
quoted as an opponent DR.. Henri
Coutard Of Paris. chief of staff of
Curie Institute, now in Oklahoma
City
I'VE don't know sufficiently the
conditions of disease ever to take the
step" he emphasized. Life is too big
a thing to decide to take away. Even
in hopeless cancer cases it is possible
to give some substance for the relief
OF pain.
Men born crippled or feeble-mind-
ed have been responsible for some of
the great works of art. Why should
their lives be taken?"