Evening star., 1950-01-08
By Howard W. BIokesIee
Associated Press Science Editor

NEW YORK, Jan. Shall
civilizations first law, Thou shalt
not kill. be modified to ease pain?
If so, what murderous tricks
may it lead to?-will the State be
allowed to say how long you shall
live?-how can doctors know when
mercy should end your life?
These questions are again
sweeping both sides of the Allan
tic, as they have done repeatedly
for centuries.
This time the case is unusual
doctor taking a life to ease pain
Usually it is done by one who
loves the sick person. most.
Whether or not he meant to-
Dir. Hermann N. Sander. Man
chester, N. H.. put the question up
to the world when he wrote on
the chart of Mrs. Abbie Borroto
SO. dying of cancer. that he had
injected air into her veins.
1t is charged that the air killed
her. DR.. Sander made the fact
official record. He has been in
dicted for murder.
There are rumors that doctors
give overdoses of pain-killing
drugs to end lives Of pain quite
often. but they never have been
verified.
Now, for the first time. organi-
cations favoring mercy deaths are
banding together to rouse senti-
ment to modify the laws of
murder Proponents of euthanasia,
mercy death. are about to ask the
United Nations to include the
right of merciful death in the
Declaration of Human Rights
This right is to be limited only
to incurable sufferers. Only with
their consent. Only with legal
safeguards.
Inc petition will come jointly
from American and British
euthanasia associations. It is the
first international move IN the
long history of mercy deaths.
Nineteen hundred years ago
Pliny the Elder, Roman histor-
ian and philosopher, wrote: THE
bounty of Providence has filled
the world with herbs for painless
death"
Pliny was talking about prac-
tices leftover from early peoples,
who killed the aged and infirm,
with mercy minor reason. But
soon after Pliny, Christianity out
1awed all these forms of death.
The modern euthanasia idea
started in 1916 in Sir Thomas
More's kingdom of Utopia. The
first organized efforts for mercy
death did not begin until the
1930s. In England the euthanasia
Legalization Society was organ
lied. In Parliament it obtained
only first reading as bill which
some newspapers called measure
to legaliZe murder"
Soon afterward in the United
States the Euthanasia Society Of
America, Inc, was organized. This
and the British society are the
only two of their kind. Both are
small. The American has 585
members the British somewhat
more. But both have leaders in
thought, religion and science. A
number of generals and admirals
belong to the British society. Both
get famous names on their petit
tions.
The American Society until now
has been active only in New York
State. But tomorrow itIbegins or
ganization of a new chapter in
Connecticut.
There the. spur was Carol
Paight, 20, college student. She
shot to death her father, ser
geant Of Stamford police, In his
hospital bed when told he was
incurably Ill with cancer. She shot
him with his service revolver. Carol
Is in county jail awaiting trial on
charges of murder. Stamford
citizens have raised money for
her defense.
The American society is plan
ming a mass meeting In New
Hampshire to sponsor legislation
making euthanasia legal. The
society is opposed to mercy deaths
until legalized.
In New York State the society
plans a bill for the present legis-
lature. In 1916 the society organ
lied committee Of 1,776 New
York doctors favoring euthanasia.
A year later 1.100 State physicians
petitioned the legislature for
mercy death laws. Last year 379
ministers sent a similar petition,
and nearly 600 ministers a petit
ton in opposition.
Society officers hope to rouse
ThoiIond's Young King
Co. MI D.: